Department of Sport, Arts and Culture

Chapter 15 of the National Development Plan articulates eloquently what needs to happen regarding nation building and social cohesion. The Department of Arts and Culture is central in driving what this chapter pronounces. The Department of Arts and Culture has worked closely with the NPC Secretariat and other relevant department in developing the Medium Term Strategic Framework for the new Outcome 14, which is about the realization of Nation Building and social Cohesion.

Outcome 14 is under the stewardship of the Minister of Arts and Culture and other relevant departments include Department of Sports and Recreation, Department of Justice as well as Department of Women, Children and people with Disabilities.

The Department of Arts and Culture re-engineered its strategic focus during 2009-20014 term of government. Such re-engineering was informed by the government-wide strategic re-orientation that put job creation and economic development at the centre of government priorities together with other eleven priorities. It was then imperative for the Department of Arts and Culture to clearly articulate its contribution to job creation and economic development agenda of government.

This resulted to the development and adoption of the Mzansi Golden Economy strategy whose primary objective is to chat the role of arts and culture sector in job creation and economic development.

A lot of work has been done to quantify statistically the contribution of the arts and culture sector, under the leadership of the Department of Arts and Culture, to economic development. More work will continue into the mid-term through the development of the arts and culture Observatory.

The National Development Plan emphasizes the need to improve schooling and education as well as the need to improve quality of life in rural areas of South Africa. Going into the medium term, the department will continue to make a visible contribution to quality education through ensuring that artists are placed in schools to improve the teaching of arts in basic education. This will not only ensure that a substantial number of artists will be employed but will also increase interests in arts and improve audience development.

Building of arts, culture and heritage infrastructure in rural areas will continue to be the priority of the department as we move into the next medium term. Such infrastructure include libraries, heritage monuments and arts centres. Maintenance of the already built infrastructure will also be central to the department’s priorities.

Apart from developing and investing in our rural areas, such ventures will also create much-needed jobs, as employment of local people will be at the centre of such development.