Chairperson, I just want to inform the hon De Villiers who raised the issue of translation and editing that the department has a huge translation and editing section which translates all official documents of all government departments and organs; and we do all that free of charge.
We also have a book and publishing section which promotes writing of books in all our indigenous languages, so we would like to encourage our communities, young people, the elderly, men and women to come out and participate in this programme. We are also, through that section, promoting the culture of reading and writing, again including all our indigenous languages.
The hon Mncube's comment on interpreting is very valid and we agree with her. However, I am proud to announce that our endeavours to build capacity include training. I have mentioned earlier some of the bursaries that we are giving out, particularly focusing on indigenous languages. That also includes interpreting skills. We are also focusing on the 2010 World Cup so that we can empower our young people for the visitors, fans and sports people who will be coming. That would be a legacy that would be left behind after the 2010 World Cup. Our young people will then be able to communicate in many languages worldwide.
We also have other areas of specialisation which include lexicography, language planning, development and translation, human language technologies and terminology. We would like to invite more of our young people and South Africans to come and participate in these programmes.
I also note the concerns about sign language. We are ensuring that in the next cycle we will introduce sign language and this will be another area of specialisation. We will come back and report to the House on progress in this regard.
Hon members Rantho and Gunda, if I am not mistaken, mentioned the Khoisan language. I think that is a very important language of our people and we, as the department, will do research in this regard involving the stakeholders and the communities. We will also look at other neighbouring countries that have done advanced work in the Khoisan languages, and we will come back and report in this regard. We believe it is an area that we should prioritise.
On national symbols, I agree with hon Rantho that this is about national identity and patriotism. The Deputy Minister and I have mentioned some of the programmes we have launched. We have started going out to the schools. We are working closely with the Department of Basic Education and the Department of Defence. We are also training our young people to sing the national anthem and know its significance. We are also putting our flags up in schools and teaching our young people about its significance, what the colours mean and the various national symbols that we have in the country.
I also want to thank the various members who have made meaningful inputs. We will include their inputs in our strategic plan.
We agree 100% with the hon member who was looking at the art centres, including women, particularly rural women. We have already started planning on how to rehabilitate our community art centres and use them to their full potential to benefit our communities and contribute towards skills training and skills transfer and also job creation for communities. So we will be embarking on this.
I also want to report that the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown was opened yesterday. I had the opportunity to be there. It is focusing on arts and crafts. It is taking these to the rural areas to train our communities and to ensure, hon Rantho, that those rural communities, especially rural women, are able to benefit from what we are doing in Grahamstown and other centres.
I also want to announce that this year, for our Heritage Month, we will be focusing once again on crafts and will ensure that we have our rural communities, including our women and young people, participating and benefiting through the craft centres. The national celebration for Heritage Day this month will be in Limpopo because we want to focus on our rural communities.
Also for the month we will be hosting the national arts councils of the world. We will have the conference hosted by the International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture and, again, here the focus will be on exposure and ensuring that our local artists, including our rural artists and cultural workers, get recognition and international contact and exposure. We hope that after this and also through capacity-building they will be able to play and participate at that level.
In conclusion, I want to thank, once again, the former Minister, Comrade Pallo Jordan, and Deputy Minister Ntombazana Botha for laying a firm foundation in this department which was originally established in 2004, when it was separated from Science and Technology. We will carry on and implement the important policies and programmes that they have introduced. I also want to thank Deputy Minister Paul Mashatile for his solid support.
Let me also thank the select committee, especially the chairperson, for the support they have given us in the short period that we have worked together, and also for the difficult questions they have asked us. They have helped to keep us on our toes and to continue to account to the nation.
Lastly, I want to thank my director-general, Mr Themba Wakashe and his team from the department for their day-to-day support and hard work in the department.
Debate concluded.