Minister Gayton McKenzie: Sport, Arts and Culture Dept Budget Vote 2024/25

House Chairperson.
Deputy Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Hon Peace Mabe.
Ministers and other Deputy Ministers here present.
Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee of Sport, Arts and Culture Hon Joseph McGluwa
Honourable Members.
Chairpersons and Chief Executives of Public Entities.
Distinguished Guests.
Members of the Media.
Ladies and Gentlemen.

As I start, I’d like to tell you about the power of what sport, arts and culture represent.

Living just a few houses from mine, I grew up with a boy who dedicated himself to sport. While we both had talent, I chose gangsterism and a life of crime and ended up in jail. The other boy was Willem Jackson and he ended up playing for Bafana Bafana at the FIFA World Cup.

Sport took Ashwin Willemse out of a life of gangsterism and he became the world’s best rugby player 20 years ago.

The arts in our country have always been seen as less important than sport, but we dare not accept that.

I come from the Khoi and the San people, who have been discriminated against. Many have tried to rob them of their history. But the paintings that they left on rock walls stand as testimony to this day and as a title deed.

So art is timeless. Art is truth.

When our freedom fighters were locked up, people were banned and our voices were suppressed. The voices of Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba and Jonas Gwangwa, told the world through song that it is not yet uhuru for South Africa.

Music could go where Mandela could not. This is the power of arts and culture.

When we saw off the Paralympians this month, many saw a team of people with disabilities. I saw a group of inspirational people who could rise above their personal circumstances.

KG Montjane won the women’s wheelchair doubles trophy at Wimbledon on Sunday as a reminder that, as South Africans, we can and often do rise above whatever our circumstances are to achieve greatness.

Other highlights this year include the recognition of the Springboks’ many achievements at the South African Sport Awards 2024, while Kirsten Neuschäfer won Sportswoman of the year for triumphing in the Golden Globe Race. She was the first-ever woman to win any round-the-world sailing race and was awarded Sportswoman of the Year.

We shall continue to showcase our South African sports stars by also hosting the Ministerial Outstanding Sports Performance Accolades, the Andrew Mlangeni Green Jacket Awards and the G Sport Awards that honour women in sport.

The inaugural Creative Cultural Industry (CCI) Awards also received many positive reviews and I look forward to much more to come from this initiative and our other prestigious events in the arts and culture calendar.

House Chair, we need to give our young people every opportunity to shine and win awards themselves.

Our predecessor in the department, Zizi Kodwa, rightly recognised that our school sport system is fragmented and split among government-supported programmes, federations and private schools. The former minister held a School Sport Indaba that resolved that a comprehensive blueprint for school sport be developed. We must take this forward with a new delivery model to be implemented.

We will be reaching out to the Department of Basic Education to bring back physical education as a stand-alone subject at schools. We will also need a new national oversight body for school sport, with support from DSAC, the DBE, and SASCOC, to create one seamless system for the development of sport in schools. The most recent Eminent Persons Group on Transformation in Sport report noted that only eight per cent of learners in South Africa’s 25 000 public schools have any kind of access to sport. This is far too low and much will need to change in terms of improving equal access to sport.

R94 million is set to be transferred to a targeted 50 national sport federations through the Winning Nation subprogramme.

House Chair, let me be clear that we are also prioritising arts and culture throughout our country, including in our schools.

Over the medium term, R1.2 billion is being allocated to the Mzansi Golden Economy subprogramme in Arts and Culture Promotion and Development. These funds will be used to create more than 60 000 job opportunities in the cultural and creative sector. Of this allocation, R69.4 million is earmarked for placing more than 1 000 artists in schools over the next three years, with the aim of developing and improving art teaching and skills.

The presidential employment stimulus was launched in October 2020 to mitigate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic across all sectors. The programme’s reach into the creative industry is realised through the creative industries stimulus, which is allocated R351 million in 2024/25 to create about 30 000 jobs.

Our Recreation Development and Sport Promotion programme has an allocation of R4.1 billion over the MTEF period. Of this amount, R1.2 billion is within the Infrastructure Support subprogramme and R1.9 billion is channelled to the mass participation and sport development grant. The grant supports programmes such as the Move for Health Day; the National Indigenous Games Festival; our National Recreation Day, which will be integrated with the Big Walk; the Nelson Mandela Sport and Culture Day; and various outreach programmes, including my own as the minister. No discipline will be ignored in our department, including stick fighting and other indigenous games. The Kaapse Klopse will also be recognised as a distinctively South African mix of culture and heritage.

The grant enables provincial departments responsible for sport, arts and culture to offer development and support programmes for talented and high-performance athletes. Accordingly, R56.8 million is allocated to encourage the development of young people through supporting 90 school sport leagues at the district level and R80.9 million is allocated to enable 4 000 of them to highlight their skills at events such as the national school sport championship.

An estimated 53.1 per cent (R2.2 billion) of the Recreation Development and Sport Promotion programme’s budget over the next 3 years is within the Active Nation subprogramme.

In 2024/25, R40.2 million is allocated for supporting 90 organised community-based sport and recreation activities, and R78.4 million is allocated to provide sports equipment and attire to schools, hubs and clubs to enable participation in sport and recreation.

Each province will be running athlete-development programmes for emerging high-performance athletes over the medium term.

Allow me to mention, House Chair, that as the new minister I am encouraged that the department has responded so warmly to my personal enthusiasm for the emerging motorsport of spinning, which will be recognised, formalised and professionalised with the assistance of this department.

The department is committed to upskilling and transforming the sport, arts and culture sector. This involves building capacity through bursaries, internships and incubator programmes. Over the medium term, R150 million is allocated to support 66 capacity-building projects in the cultural and creative sector; R16.7 million is allocated in the National Language Services subprogramme in Arts and Culture Promotion and Development to award language bursaries to 420 university students.

An estimated 45.1 per cent (R8.4 billion) of the department’s budget over the medium term is within Heritage Promotion and Preservation programme. Of this amount, R5 billion is earmarked for the community library services grant through the Public Library Services subprogramme, and R2.1 billion is set to be transferred to museums for their operations through the Heritage Institutions subprogramme.

The department has a number of key heritage projects still under development, some more successful than others, which we shall be visiting in an attempt to better understand the circumstances.

We will financially support the SA Institute for Drug-Free Sport and ensuring that commitments to the World Anti-Doping Agency and the Regional Anti-doping Agency are upheld annually.

Boxing South Africa as a public entity of the department will continue to be supported and regulated while we work to boost this sport, particularly by making its practitioners more independent and to return our boxers to being global stars.

We will also be providing accessible infrastructure to communities by constructing more community gyms and play parks, as well as multipurpose sports courts.

House Chair, there are numerous vacant posts in the department, which have in effect been managed for practical reasons through hiring contract workers to perform essential roles and tasks. Some of this is a legacy from the merger of the former Department of Sport and Department of Arts and Culture, but this administration must now bed down these changes permanently and coherently.

We are addressing this matter as we would like to see the vacancies eliminated and competent people given the assurance of full-time employment at Sport, Arts and Culture.

The position of the Director-General remains vacant and is among other prioritised positions to be filled by this financial year. This year, the Department will finalise the organisational design project that was started in the prior year.

Finally, this department will be resuming its role of repatriating the remains of numerous fallen struggle soldiers in other African countries.

The repatriation and restitution work will be driven through the newly established Repatriation and Restitution Office at the South African Heritage Resources Agency.

The Department is working with the Inter-Ministerial Committee on the Resistance and Liberation Heritage Route to return these human remains this year.

We must finally give these families closure.

As I close, I would like to reflect on the resilience of the South African people and how this department provides the clearest platform for us to showcase our indomitable spirit.

We are at our best when we are South Africans. No DNA, just RSA.

Chairperson, I hereby table the budget for the 2024/25 financial year.

Summary
As I start, I’d like to tell you about the power of what sport, arts and culture represent.

Living just a few houses from mine, I grew up with a boy who dedicated himself to sport. While we both had talent, I chose gangsterism and a life of crime and ended up in jail. The other boy was Willem Jackson and he ended up playing for Bafana Bafana at the FIFA World Cup.