Hon Chairperson, the advent of democracy in South Africa has provided unique and exciting opportunities for our people. For the first time our people's cultural rights and linguistic diversity are recognised, acknowledged and protected. In 1996 we adopted a new constitutional framework, which lays the foundation for the protection and promotion of the cultural rights and linguistic diversity of our people.
Section 16(1) of our Constitution says:
Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes -
a) freedom of the press and other media; b) freedom to receive or impart information or ideas; c) freedom of artistic creativity; and d) academic freedom and freedom of scientific research.
Section 30 says:
Everyone has the right to use the language and to participate in the cultural life of their choice, but no one exercising these rights may do so in a manner inconsistent with any provision of the Bill of Rights.
Section 32(1) states that:
Everyone has the right of access to -
a) any information held by the state; and
b) any information that is held by another person and that is required for the exercise or protection of any rights.
Hon Chairperson, the 52nd national conference of the ANC expressed concern that the central and most pressing challenges facing the country were unemployment, poverty and inequality. We reiterated our determination to ensure that we use the heritage and cultural expressions of our people to expand our fight against unemployment and poverty.
We reiterated our acknowledgement that arts and culture and the creativity of our people represent one of the most important opportunities to further our goal to continue in our quest to crystallise a developmental state. We said this because arts and culture, and the creative expressions of our people, serve as one of the most practical measures to take the fight against poverty to our communities.
Hon Chairperson, this Budget Vote expresses our commitment to developing the cultural expressions of our people to fight poverty and unemployment. It shows the Department of Arts and Culture's commitment to developing robust skills development and training programmes that are targeted at vulnerable groups such as women, youth and the disabled.
Overall, Arts and Culture expenditure grew from R1,58 billion in 2007-08 to R2,44 billion in 2010-11, mainly due to additional spending on capital projects, such as developing Freedom Park as a commemorative facility, upgrading and maintaining museums, and improving public and community library services.
Over the medium term, expenditure is expected to grow from R2,44 billion in 2010-11 to R2,78 billion in 2013-14, mainly due to increases in transfers to provinces, as well as transfers to departmental agencies and accounts. These increases are mainly due to upgrading and maintenance of public entities, and the continued allocation for the community library services grant.
This budget also shows that it is in line with our commitment to promote and protect the linguistic rights of our communities, especially marginalised languages such Khoisan, Nama, siSwati, Xitsonga and Tshivenda. This is reflected in the increase of expenditure on the National Language Services programme, which grew from R87 million in 2007-08 to R111,1 million in 2013-14.
In regard to this paragraph, hon Chairperson and hon Minister, I have indicated that ...
... lehono ge re bolela ka set?o re be re swanet?e go bona Vatsonga ba apere"tinjovo", Vhavenda ba apere "minwenda" le Bapedi ba Ga-Sekhukhune ba apere ditsiba. Re swanet?e go bona gape le dirampha?ana. (Translation of Sepedi paragraph follows.)
[... when we speak of culture today we should be seeing the Tsonga people wearing "tinjovo" [attire made of animal hides], the Venda people wearing "minwenda" and Bapedi from Ga-Sekhukhune wearing "ditsiba". We should also see "dirampha?ana".] Hon Faber, do you know what "rampha?ana" means?