Modern, Growing, Successful Province

2017/2018 Budget Speech - Northern Cape Department of Sports, Arts and Culture.

Honourable Speaker and Deputy Speaker
Honourable Premier
Members of the Executive Council
Members of the Provincial Legislature
Officials from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture
Comrades and Friends
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Molweni , Dumelang , Goeie Middag , Good Afternoon

Honourable Speaker,

It is to me a great  honour and privilege to table this year's budget vote 7 which is the fourth year the MTSF 2015-19 for the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture. This year 2017 we posthumously celebrate 100 years of Oliver Reginald Tambo who was born in Nkantolo, Bizana in the Eastern Cape on 27 October in 1917.

Comrade O.R, as he was affectionately known in the movement, together with others dedicated most of his youth and adult life to the fight for a non-racial, non-sexist, prosperous and truly democratic South Africa. Comrade O.R was a founding member of the ANCYL and became its founding secretary in 1944, he then went on to serve in the NEC of the ANC and later became its President from 1969 to 1991, during a very testing and difficult period in the history of the ANC which was then operating under conditions of a banned or illegal organisation.

In 1990 Oliver Reginald Tambo returned to South Africa after spending more than 20 years in exile and was subsequently elected national chairperson of the ANC at the 1991 conference, a position he held until his death on the 24th of April 1993, a year before the birth of a free and democratic South Africa.

Honourable Speaker, as free South Africans we owe it to comrade O.R and others like him, to live up to the values which these great leaders espoused, the values and principles of ubuntu, inclusivity and equality.

Honourable speaker, Sport, Arts and Culture as the lead department for outcome 14, we are centrally positioned to advocate for the entrenchment ,preservation of these values and principles within our society, something which will foster social cohesion in our communities and the province as a whole.

This year we also mark 40 years since the killing of Phakamile Mabija by the apartheid police on the 7th of July 1977. Comrade Phakamile Mabija was a young activist from the township of Galeshewe who because of his dedication to the liberation struggle paid the ultimate price for freedom. As a society we remain indebted to Phakamile Mabija and many other young people who sacrificed their youth to fight for freedom, we dare not betray their tenacity to fight for freedom even if it meant death.  We also need to lower our banners in remembrance of the leader of the Black Consciousness Movement, Steve Bantubonke Biko, who 40 years ago, on the 12th of September 1977, succumbed to the brutal torture by the apartheid police.

We remember during this month heroes and heroines of the 1976 June 16 and subsequent student and youth uprisings. With special emphasis on highlighting youth unemployment, alarmed by rising crime, and urge for skills development and education.

Honourable Speaker it is sad to note that it is during this year that we had to say our last goodbyes to one of the last three remaining Rivonia trialist,  Ahmed “Uncle Kathy” Kathrada, who passed away on 28 March 2017. Uncle Kathy together with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Andrew Mlangeni, Govan Mbeki and others had to face a possibility of being sentenced to death by the apartheid justice system during the Rivonia trial.. Lala ngoxolo Uncle Kathy, lala ngoxolo mkhonto…

Honourable members, let me take this opportunity to send our heartfelt condolences to the friends, family and comrades of the late human rights activist, Lord Joel Joffe who passed away on Sunday 18 June 2017 at the age of 85. Comrade Joffe was one of the country’s most respected legal minds who played a critical role during the liberation struggle for our freedom and democracy. His immense contribution saw him representing political prisoners including the late father of our nation, President Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Andrew Mlangeni and Elias Motsoaledi during the famous Rivonia Trial in 1963.

Let me also make use of the platform to pay homage and pass our condolenses to the families and friends of all the artists and sports personalities who passed on and who represented us well locally and abroad. We salute the late Joe Mafela, Mandla Hlatshwayo, Chris “aka” Gunman Kubheka, Ivor Brooker, Vincent Tshabalala , Ralph Hannie and Johan Botha.

Honourable Speaker, the latest events of abuse against women, children and the vulnerable community leaves much to be desired. We condemn the acts with the contempt it deserves. As the Department of Sport and Culture we pledge our support to Premier’s Call for Action campaign launched at the beginning of June.

Honourable members, Social Cohesion and Nation Building underpin our programmes of service delivery. Our focus is on creating tolerance amongst all people and groups, developing trust and national pride in so doing transforming society to become truly inclusive.

In Sport, Arts and Culture we reference our programmes against the policy mandates and NDP priorities. We actively seek to create a disciplined, people centred, professional public service, as well as platforms supporting the creation of education and training opportunities,  for youth development and empowerment. A prosperous society begins with each individual holding onto and advancing that vision of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic society we have fought for and many have died for.

Honourable Speaker, none of this will become a reality without the dedicated men and women who serve in the department. May I take this opportunity to honour the following men and women for their remarkable achievements in the public service:

  • Mr. Johannes Kammies, a Library Assistant in Calvinia in Namakwa District and Mr. Obotseng Thys Moncho at the McGregor Museum for dedicating 30 years in public service.
  • Ms Sharon Molusi who completed 25 years of service at end of March 2017.

I thank you for your commitment and dedication in public service.

Turning my attention to our programmes, we take pride in highlighting our achievements in the past year, amongst others –

  • we officially opened 7 new community libraries in the following towns: Olifantshoek, Louisvale, Noupoort, Norvalspont, Cassel, Homevale, Danielskuil and activated the library service at Sternham.
  • the rollout and maintenance of public access internet services to 155 library sites;
  • the staging of 7 art exhibitions showcasing local talent as well as 2  literary and photo exhibitions profiling the women struggles of 1956 as well as the Mayibuye Uprisings of 1952;
  • the commemoration of 10 national days across the province. In celebrating Human Rights Month, our programme centred around the restoration of the dignity, the late MaGhais Cloete, a Nama woman who’s remains were used in a school laboratory for Biological experiments in Steinkopf, Namaqualand;
  • we have managed to rename the provincial office building of Department of Roads and Public Works in Upington into Ntsikelelo Mbetha.
  • we have also renamed the provincial office building of Department of Sport, Arts and Culture into Evelyn De Bruin.
  • 226 sport kits handed over to schools, clubs and sport hubs; through successful collaboration with the Dr Molefi Oliphant institute of Leadership, 45 schools received equipment to the value of R8 million for 4 sporting codes;
  • we continued the roll out of Recre-hab programmes in prisons and youth centres reaching over 8 338 beneficiaries ;
  • we acknowledge sport excellence in the province through the hosting of the annual Provincial Sport Awards especially honouring Bethuel Seribe, Matthew Batswadi and M G Leserwane through the MEC Special Award;
  • we hosted the fifth annual Youth Camp with 209 learners across the province benefiting from leadership and other skills over the week long programme;
  • we congratulate Hilton Moreeng on his appointment as the head coach of South African Women Cricket team.
  • successful establishment and launch of sport councils in all five districts, paving the way for the establishment of the Sport and Recreation Authority;
  • we facilitated the training of 926 persons in sport and recreation literacy;
  • successful hosting of National Awards for Unsung Women Treasures, a N/uu language reservoir Ms. Katrina Esau and a Khoisan Cultural activist Ms. Katrina Allie;
  • successful hosting of National Heritage Day and Heritage Awards with the “Sanuse” Mr. Credo Mutwa was bestowed with a living legend award.
  • we created job opportunities for 30 young patriots by placing them in  community art centres and doing audit of national flags and symbols in schools
  • we wish Moduduetsane Basadi good luck on their production at Grahamstown national Arts festival which is currently in process

Arts and Culture

In this year in the arts and culture sector we are putting our resources towards the production and distribution of all art forms that facilitates healing, nation building and dialogue about moral regeneration. We want to ignite the passion of our people to aspire to a society in which we are free from oppression and prejudice in matters of gender, religion, culture and race. We must become more compassionate and respecting of one another in our diversity as a rainbow nation.

To this end we will host 7 art exhibitions, 2 performance productions in dance and theatre, launching book clubs and the establishment of 3 Liberation Heritage routes. The Northern Cape has submitted the Langeberg Resistance liberation route for John Taolo Gaetsewe District, the Galeshewe Memorial resistance and liberation route for Frances Baard District and the Upington 26 liberation route for the ZF Mgcawu District to be recognized as part of the National Heroes and Heroines programme.

Honourable Speaker, we need to ensure our cultural heritage is advanced and protected for generations to come. In this way we also create economic opportunities for the local economy that span across tourism, heritage, arts and culture and education.

We are developing infrastructure and public spaces to create platforms for shared experiences across class and race. We are excited to announce the finalization and re-opening of the Northern Cape Theatre before the end of this calendar year. The Warrenton Cultural Resort and Mayibuye Centre in Kimberley which serves as the Provincial Arts and Culture centres are responsible for providing support and services to art practitioners. Support is provided mainly to cultural groups and accredited training is provided in drama, theatre, sports, music and dance groups.

We are presently receiving countless requests to facilitate the establishment of Community Arts Centers throughout the municipalities, Phillipstown and Mothibistad centers are already established and operational.

Honourable Speaker, the equal promotion and development of indigenous languages like Nxu, Xhu, Khwe and Nama are now elevated to a cultural bilateral agreement with Namibia through the KHARAS region (Namibia) cooperation with ZF Mgcawu and Namakwa districts. This is a cultural exchange programme across genres of music, arts, craft and language interaction and dialogue.

Honourable Speaker, multilingualism is promoted through specific activities such as translations, language training, interpreting services and literary exhibitions. The purpose is to promote inclusivity in addition to promoting reading as well as the proper understanding of government documents. During this year, the province will also be hosting the celebration of the fifth anniversary of the Old Mutual Provincial Choir competitions.

Honourable Speaker, we will be hosting the National Women’s Day celebration on the 09th of August. We will also be renaming the Provincial Office of the Department of Social Development at Mimosa Complex to Lahli Mabilo Complex.

Honourable Speaker, Oliver Tambo was a man passionate about education and his achievements would be miraculous in the South Africa of today. What is more, many forget that Oliver Tambo was a teacher and spent 10 years teaching mathematics and science at his old school, St Peter's Secondary School in Rosettenville, Johannesburg. He is highly renowned throughout the world as a man of much fortitude, unquestionable morals and incredible perseverance.

In keeping OR Tambo legacy of building a reading society alive, we will be hosting the O.R Tambo exhibition at the McGregor Museum in October month preceded by the Sol Plaatje exhibition at the same venue.

The Community Library Services Grant is allocated an amount of R163 million in the 2017/18 financial year. We have further set aside an amount of R36,2 million to transfer to Municipalities during this financial year. During this financial year, we will continue our engagement with key partners such as SALGA and local Municipalities to ensure that the delivery of library services continues in all of our Municipalities. The bulk of this allocation will be utilised   for the construction of new study libraries and the procurement of library materials in the province as well as continued professionalization and development of capacity in the sector.

Our focus will be on eradicating inefficiencies within the management of the libraries conditional grant, especially at Municipal level.

We have also set aside over R1,8 million for bursaries, training interventions and for our annual Libraries Symposium where our Librarians have an opportunity to benchmark and be exposed to new trends in the sector.

It is for this reason that we have already commenced with improving our monitoring and evaluation capacity at District level so as to ensure that our communities are truly empowered through our libraries. We have set aside just over R700 000 for monitoring and evaluation capacity at District level.

Honourable Speaker, The delivery of new infrastructure as well as  accompanying services will be well planned and implemented. We will also commence with stakeholder consultations, planning and design processes for new Libraries to be constructed in Greenpoint and Niekerkshoop. Our total infrastructure budget for the year is R34,9 million.

During this year we will continue with the planning and construction of the Upington and Kuruman Study Libraries as announced last year. These are multi-year projects and will conclude in the next financial year. In the next few months we will be officially opening the following 7 new libraries Petrusville , Churchill , Ritchie , Askham , Kammasies , Witbank and Logaganeng.

Honourable Members, we will be failing in our mandate if we do not ensure access to information by all our communities. We are also in the process of developing long-term plans that will enable us to improve delivery within the library and information services sector. It is for this reason that we will continue to roll out the provision of internet access to all of our community Libraries in the Province over the next three years. The target we have set ourselves for this year is to provide free internet services to 160 libraries throughout the Province. We are confident that we will reach all of our libraries by the end of the next three years.

Honourable Speaker, we are committed to creating a prosperous, empowered province, united in our diversity through the advancement of sport, heritage, arts and culture. The department will continue to seek and establish new partnerships that will contribute towards the development of local content writings, literature development generally, and our long-term vision of having a City of Literature declared in the Province. Among others, we will seek to consolidate relationships with the Sol Plaatje University, the Writers' Guild, and other stakeholders who share our vision of seeing accessible libraries and advocating the love for reading and writing.

Our stories are important! They give presence to, seemingly, the most insignificant of people and events, yet they are powerful in affirming and inspiring us and the generations to come to build a community strong enough to develop and grow with the ever changing demands in a knowledge economy of the 21st century.

Honourable Speaker, over the last few years we have focused a lot of our efforts on building sustainable relationships with stakeholders within the Sector. During this year we will continue to build on these partnerships and also seek to establish new ones. We wish to invite honourable members to take part in our outreach and marketing campaigns that seek to promote reading and writing among our communities.

During September this year, we will be celebrating National Book Week as well as International Literacy Day. We are inviting members of this house to each donate books to households that do not have books and also to adopt Early Childhood Development Centres in their areas as we seek to encourage reading to our young ones. An amount of R1,6 million is set aside for our advocacy, marketing and partnership of this programme.

It gives us great pleasure to announce the signing of a three-year Agreement in the last financial year with the Sol Plaatje University for the development of literature in the Province. This Agreement will give us an opportunity to develop young writers through programmes like the Annual Summer School for Writing, public readings and lectures, as well as workshops to benefit local up and coming writers. We will continue to incentivise a dedicated programme to develop new writings and stimulate a sustained interest in reading at all levels through the Northern Cape Writers Festival.

Honourable members, in our quest to preserve and promote our history, the Kgotso Flatella Provincial Archives Repository have started accepting A20 material to broaden the capacity of the facility. The repository is currently housing important documents of the following institutions:

  • Frances Baard 1960- 1995)
  • Sol Plaatje Kimberley City Council ( 1957- 1994)
  • Galeshewe City Council ( 1978- 1991)
  • Coloured Management City Council( 1979- 1992)
  • Indian Management Council Minutes ( 1977- 1985)

During this financial year we will focus on housing the digitized records of estate files of the Northern Cape that are currently housed in the Western Cape. We also further urge private bodies eg churches, mining companies, and private individuals to donate the non public archival records with enduring value to the archives repository for permanent preservation and access to information.

SPORT

Honorable Speaker , Nelson Mandela once said that “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair”.

Apart from participating in football, tennis and cricket at St Peter’s, Oliver Tambo was also a member of the school’s choir. At the age of 16, while on holiday in Kantolo, Tambo and some friends formed the Bizana Students Association (BSA). He was elected secretary of the organisation and Caledon Mda was elected Chairperson. The aim of the BSA was to mobilise students during the holidays and engage them in organised activities.

Honourable members, I am pleased to announce that a total amount of R31.3 million is allocated in the 2017/18 financial year to facilitate Mass Participation in Sport and Recreation. The department will, through the school sport programme, facilitate provincial championships for the identification of athletes to participate and represent the province in the National Championships in this year. In aspiring to sport excellence, the Department will continue to support the development of athletes in schools and for this reason have allocated R10 million. We are engaging our delivery partners in school sport the Department of Basic Education in resuscitating school sport Wednesdays at least in Primary Schools

Indeed, A CHILD IN SPORT , IS A CHILD OUT OF COURT!!!

In advancing our cultural heritage, the Department will continue to establish at grass roots levels, Indigenous Sport structures in an effort to revive such sport codes. This year will see this programme come to fruition when no less than 210  athletes from rural settlements within the JTG District will compete at the National Rural Development Games in Polokwane from the 10th to 15th July 2017.

For the financial year 2017 -18, the department has again budgeted R1,2 million for the eradication of sport literacy through skills development programmes.

This year, in collaboration with SALGA, the Department will implement the Inkosi Albert Luthuli SALGA games across all 27 municipalities.

Honorable speaker, we are committed to creating an enabling environment for sport participation and as such has facilitated the awarding sport facility development programmes in the following municipalities through the MIG funding for Multi Purpose Outdoor Facilities.

  • Sol Plaatje R6. 8 million
  • Hantam R6.8 million
  • Siyancuma R6.8 million

In order to ensure that the youth of today will become the future leaders of tomorrow, the Department will this year again host the weeklong National Youth Camp programme targeting 250 youth from a selected 30 schools with a budget of R3 million

Honourable Speaker,

I table this 2017/18 budget of the Department totaling an amount of
R 371 million and the allocation is as follows,

Programme Equitable Share Conditional Grant Total
P1. Administration R 73 673 000     
P2. Cultural Affairs R 63 132 000    
P3. Library and Archives Services R 15 953 000 R 165 000 000 R 180 953 000
P4. Sport and Recreation R 19 706 000 R  33 624 000 R 53 330 000
TOTAL 2017/18 BUDGET R 172 464 000 R 198 624 000 R 371 088 000

Honourable Speaker, in conclusion in this year of the 100th anniversary of the birth of O. R. Tambo we make this clarion call for a return to moral regeneration , respect for human life and dignity by stopping violence against women , children and the vulnerable.  I wish to thank the African National Congress, the Honourable Premier, my Colleagues in the Executive Council and the members of the Sport, Arts and Culture Portfolio Committee, for their leadership, support and guidance in the execution of this important mandate.

May I also take this opportunity to extend my appreciation to the Head of Department Ms Ruth Palm, Head of Ministry Mr. Eric Gaborone, the

Ministerial Staff and each official of the Department for their commitment and support. Lastly, let me thank my family and my extended family for their love and support

I thank you

Nike Air Jordan Retro 1 Red Black White - Buy Air Jordan 1 Retro (white / black / varsity red), Price: $60.85 - Air Jordan Shoes

Mail Us

Office of the Premier 
Private Bag X5016 
Kimberley 
8301

Leave a Comment