On Saturday evening, the Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (CPYO) performed its first concert in two decades, with 55 of the Western Cape’s very best young musicians bringing legendary compositions by Beethoven, Elgar, and Mendelssohn to the Hugo Lambrechts Music Centre in Parow.

However, this event takes place against the looming backdrop of national Minister of Arts, Sport and Culture Nathi Mthethwa’s attempts to undermine the youth development efforts of regional orchestras. Minister Mthethwa has moved ahead with his outlandish and wasteful national orchestra proposal, despite the opposition of many within South Africa’s musical community. Having been proposed by Minister Mthethwa with an already-outlandish budget of R30 million, it has been revealed that the National Orchestra has already cost the taxpayer an unbelievable R54 million.

The Artistic Directors of the Gauteng and Eastern Cape Philharmonic Orchestras have both expressed deep concern over the proposal’s potential to stymie the operations of regional orchestras, while the CEO of the Cape Town Philharmonic (CPO) has branded the proposal as wasteful, and ‘folly’.

The DA maintains, as it did when news of the proposal first broke, our regional orchestras are institutions worth saving. In addition to maintaining its Youth Orchestra, the CPO runs the Masidlale Grassroots Training Program, which equips underprivileged young people with the skills necessary to become professional musicians.

Saturday’s landmark concert highlights the work of the CPO, and demonstrates that, despite the hardships of the pandemic, the cultural and arts sectors have begun to recover and grow once again. I call on Minister Nathi Mthethwa to cease his betrayal of the artists and musicians whom he is meant to be leading, and to instead invest his Department’s budget into competent and well-run organisations such as the CTO.

 

Issued by Gillion Bosman, MPP - DA Western Cape Spokesperson on Cultural Affairs and Sport