The Department of Arts and Culture appeared before the Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture to present its progress on the Mzansi Golden Economy, an initiative established in 2011 as a strategic investment mechanism to create jobs, stimulate demand, build capacity and audiences and develop human capital in the arts and culture sector.
“These programmes are meant to maximise the existing investment in arts and culture. To identify new opportunities through open calls, create new platforms for growth and develop institutional mechanisms to support these objectives,” said the Chief Director of Cultural Development in the Arts and Culture Department, Mr Charles Mabaso.
Part of the Mzansi Golden Economy’s strategy is to create a formidable case for investment in the arts as a catalytic area to build demand and audiences for sustainable jobs and human capital development.
There are various work streams such as the Art Bank, Mzansi Golden Market, cultural precincts, cultural observatory, cultural events, and an incubator programme to realise these objectives.
The Art Bank is a national rental agency for contemporary and traditional South African art. “This platform is intended to be a stimulus for the visual arts economy. A project manager has been appointed in April 2016 and its exhibition launch is planned for the end of July 2017.”
Part of the Mzansi Golden Economy is to develop cultural precincts which will alternate as both office and performance spaces, he said. “Funding has been ring-fenced for planning and research of Phase 2 of the Newtown Cultural Precinct. Also, funding has been ring-fenced for the revised feasibility study and business plan for Red Location in Port Elizabeth.”
The Mzansi Golden Economy is backed up by a cultural observatory meant to advance research on cultural information as a means to assess and foster the advancement of the state of arts and culture in the country. To date, three universities: the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Fort Hare University and Rhodes University have developed five-year research programmes on the role of research on arts and culture.
According to Mr Mabaso, the department has initiated Provincial Flagship Festivals and Touring Ventures to stimulate demand and to support our country’s arts and culture practitioners both locally and internationally. “In the 2016/17 financial year, about 89 projects were supported by the department to the tune of more than R8m as part of this project. The majority of the beneficiaries were emerging community groups that we supported to tour nationally and internationally to showcase the diverse South African culture. Besides these projects, there are also open calls for funding, aimed at various arts and cultural initiatives across the country,” he said.
A member of the Committee, Ms Velhelmina Mogotsi, said the department must furnish the Committee with the list of organisations that received funding and those that submitted their funding requests but never received any funding. “I am saying this because I know of people who complain that they have been applying for funding all these years but never got any funding.”
Mr Jabulani Mahlangu, another member of the Committee, said he has gripes with these open calls because he has never seen them in the press or heard about them over the radio. “When you do open calls, send them to us as well. If you do so, you will ensure that our constituencies receive them. I must also indicate that when we test your performances we look for your weaknesses. You may tell us about what you did, we will tell you what you did not do.”
Mr Mabaso agreed: “We need to do more to ensure that open calls are accessible and reach a broader arts community in various provinces. Perhaps we need to do more to ensure that they are more accessible through various mediums of communication.”
Mr Mahlangu also asked: “What is the department doing to ensure that the skills of legendary artists such as Esther Mahlangu are transferred to up-and-coming artists? Her artworks are sitting in Germany permanently. What does the department say or do about that? What are you doing as the department to ensure that her legacy remains in the country? And she shares her skills with the young and up-and-coming artists? We are endowed with skills that can benefit our economy, let us exploit them.”
Mr Mabaso said: “We have a programme of the living legends, she is one of the artists who are going to run a master’s class in this programme, but the problem is that her rights lie outside the country. South African artists have ceded their rights. People who derive royalties reside outsider the country,” he said.
Mr Mahlangu interjected: “The Mzansi Golden Economy must craft a path that will ensure that we safeguard the artistic and cultural heritage of this country and ensure that our artists don’t cede their rights to other countries.”
Ms Sibongile Tsoleli said: ”We need to know – does the money that is allocated to the arts festivals go to the artists or the promoters? The Macufe Festival (the nine-day annual African cultural event that is held in Bloemfontein) got an excess of R45m at some stage and it was seen as a fiscal risk. Who is really benefiting, is it the artists or the organisers? Can the department analyse and give us a report of the percentages that go to the artists. Especially the local ones, if they do benefit it would be 1% of them. There are disparities in how these festivals are funded.”
The Deputy Director of Cultural Affairs, Mr Dumisani Chabalala, conceded that 75% of the department’s funding towards national festivals goes to the technical services. And artists share a nominal percentage. “There are inroads now to ensure that the department plays a role in mitigating the costs involved in technical services or in acquiring this expertise. It is true, a lot of festivals’ funding does not go to artists, but to technical services.”
Following on that, the Acting Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Arts and Culture, Ms Xoliswa Tom, asked: “Do you get value for your money, and how do you determine that? When you award funds, how do you monitor them to ensure that they enhance your vision? We are asking these questions because we want people to have faith – not in this Committee, but in the department. And they should see it as the department that is at the centre of job creation and human development of the previously marginalised – not of those who benefited in the past.
“Most of all, the department must work with other departments in areas where your stakeholders, policy or legislative imperatives intersect. For instance, there are Bills before Parliament initiated by the Department of Trade and Industry, one of your critical partners, and we have not heard of your presence or your influence regarding them. The department must influence policies and legislation that will benefit the objectives of the department.”
She added: “We want to see that the department is transforming what remains a skewed sector. People should see and feel that there is transformation in this sector. If you are not changing the lives of the artists, you should not exist. Come closer to those departments that you should be working with legislatively, to leverage your objectives.”
By Abel Mputing
20 June 2017
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