Department of Arts and Culture

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Department of Arts and Culture
PRESENTATION TO THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON
TOURISM REVITALISATION OF THE HERITAGE AND
CULTURAL TOURISM IN SOUTH AFRICA MR VUSITHEMBA
NDIMA ACTING DEPUTY DIRECTOR-GENERAL CULTURAL
HERITAGE
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CONTENTS

• INTRODUCTION
• INTERACTION AND COORDINATION BETWEEN ARTS AND
  CULTURE AND THE DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM
• PRESERVATION AND PROMOTION OF CULTURAL HERITAGE
• SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
• PROMOTION OF SOUTH AFRICAS NATIONAL CULTURAL
  HERITAGE
• ASSISTANCE PROVIDED TO PROVINCES AND DISTRICT
  MUNICIPALITIES IN PRESERVING AND PROMOTING
  HERITAGE AND CULTURAL TOURISM
• CONCLUSION
• DAC Department of Arts and Culture
• NDT National Department of Tourism
• SAHRA South African Heritage Resources Agency

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1. INTRODUCTION

• 1.1 The work of the Department of Arts and
  Culture and Tourism is interrelated.
• 1.2 Whilst the DAC facilitates the preservation
  and development of Artistic, Cultural and
  Heritage products, the Department of Tourism
  facilitates their marketing for both domestic and
  international tourism.
• 1.3 The interdependency and the intersection of
  the work of both departments necessitates a
  partnership.

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2. INTERACTION AND COORDINATION BETWEEN ARTS
AND CULTURE AND THE DEPARTMENT OF TOURISM

• 2.1 Due to the importance of culture in the
  tourism industry, DAC and NDT are working
  together in mainstreaming culture in tourism
  activities .
• 2.2 The department of Arts and Culture has
  participated in the workshops that were designed
  to develop a five year Heritage and Cultural
  Tourism Strategy.
• 2.3 The Strategy details the variety of
  interventions necessary to engender synergies
  between Heritage and Cultural Tourism
• 2.4 A Memorandum of Understanding has also been
  drafted by the two departments, however due to
  intense consultation in the Department of Arts
  and Culture, the MOU is still not signed.
• 2.5 A Steering Committee has also been
  established in order to facilitate the
  finalization of the MOU and to develop joint
  programs thereafter.

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3. PRESERVATION AND PROMOTION OF CULTURAL
HERITAGE

• 3.1 The core business of the Department of Arts
  and Culture is to preserve, protect and promote
  our cultural heritage.
• 3.2 As a result, the DAC has developed policies
  and legislative frameworks to achieve this
  objective.
• 3.3 Through these legislative frameworks, we have
  established institutions/agencies in various
  parts of the country to fulfil the mandate.
• 3.4 These agencies are mandated to identifying
  vast cultural properties in their various forms
  movable and immovable tangible and intangible.
• 3.5 The process of identification empowers us to
  conserve and protect our cultural heritage.
• 3.6 It also empowers us to develop relevant
  strategies to promote our monuments, memorials,
  museums, heritage sites and our living heritage.

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3. PRESERVATION AND PROMOTION OF CULTURAL
HERITAGE (cont-)
3.7 As an emergent (young) nation, in the
process of transition and transformation, there
is a need to identify previously ignored sites
located in the urban, semi-urban and rural
areas. 3.8 A need to package and coordinate new
cultural tourism routes that go through our
rural towns and villages. 3.9 This will ensure
that there is local economic beneficiation.
3.10 Cultural tourism has positive externalities
for a wide range of industries hospitality,
transport, creative, textile, food and other
industries.
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4. SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

• 4.1. The protection, preservation and promotion
  of heritage is dependent on people who have the
  requisite skills to ensure best practice
  guidelines are adhered to.
• 4.2 Skills and Human Resource Development assist
  the sector to keep abreast with new technological
  developments and other global developmental
  trends.
• 4.3 The Sustainability of any government, state
  or sector is entirely depended on its skills
  base.
• 4.4 It is against this background that the DAC
  embarked upon the heritage skills audit to
  produce a Heritage Human Resource Development
  Strategy.
• 4.5 This was designed to identify scarce skills
  in the sector and to find ways of producing and
  retaining those skills.

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4. SKILLS DEVELOPMENT(cont-)

• 4.6 Critical, scarce and priority skills showed
  shortages and gaps in conservation, collection
  management, archaeology and heritage management.
• 4.7 As part of the implementation of the
  strategy, the Department of Arts and Culture
  introduced a bursaries programme to assist
  students to study in any field related to
  Heritage and Cultural Tourism.
• 4.8 In 2011 (31) Bursaries were awarded to
  deserving students to serve in the fields of
  Archaeology, Museology, Curatorship,
  Anthropology, Heritage and Cultural Tourism.
• 4.9 In 2012 (71) Bursaries were awarded in the
  above mentioned fields of study.

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4. SKILLS DEVELOPMENT(cont-)
4.10 In further consolidating the strategy and
working closely with Rhodes University, SAHRA
has established a Centre for Training, Research
and Education (Centre) to address the need for
on-going occupationally directed professional
development in the heritage sector. 4.11 The
Centre seeks to promote development of high
quality, accredited in-service and
occupationally directed training programmes
targeting people working in the heritage sector,
e.g. Provincial Heritage Resources Authorities
and Local Municipalities. 4.12 Resources have
already been allocated towards the operations of
the Centre and 45 students have already been
accepted with the majority of them coming from
Local and Provincial spheres of Government.
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5. PROMOTION OF SOUTH AFRICAS NATIONAL CULTURAL
HERITAGE
5.1 As part of promotion of our Arts, Culture and
Heritage, the Department launched Mzansi Golden
Economy Strategy. 5.2 The strategy places
creative economy at the centre of our endeavours
to grow the economy, create jobs and build
sustainable livelihood. 5.3 It outlines a number
of high impact policy interventions aimed at
enhancing the contribution of Arts, Culture and
Heritage sector towards the national effort to
create 5 million jobs within the next ten
years. 5.4 Among the key projects that have been
identified are Cultural Precincts, Cultural
Events, Public Art, Art Bank, Touring Ventures,
Sourcing Company, Cultural Observatory, Legacy
Project, Liberation Heritage as well as Maritime
Heritage.
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5. PROMOTION OF SOUTH AFRICAS NATIONAL CULTURAL
HERITAGE (cont-)
5.5 The success of all on these initiatives and
programmes is dependent on partnerships with
various Government Departments, the Public and
Private sectors. 5.6 The National Department of
Tourism will be pivotal in this regard.
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6. ASSISTANCE PROVIDED TO PROVINCES AND DISTRICT
MUNICIPALITIES IN PRESERVING AND PROMOTING
HERITAGE AND CULTURAL TOURISM

• 6.1 The provision of Cultural Heritage
  infrastructure in the form of museums, monuments,
  memorials and theatres cuts across the three
  spheres of Government.
• 6.2 Similarly, the support of crafts, exhibitions
  and festivals is spread throughout all the
  spheres of government.
• 6.3 Existing programmes as well as those
  envisaged by the Department are implemented at
  national, provincial and local spheres.
• 6.4 This is testament to the role the Department
  plays at provincial and local levels.

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6. ASSISTANCE PROVIDED TO PROVINCES AND DISTRICT
MUNICIPALITIES IN PRESERVING AND PROMOTING
HERITAGE AND CULTURAL TOURISM (Cont.)
6.5 The Department has just completed an audit of
our living heritage (cultural tradition, oral
history, performances, rituals, popular memory,
skills and techniques, indigenous knowledge
systems and the holistic approach to nature,
society and social relationships) in all our
provinces. 6.6 This will assist the Department to
develop ways and means of preserving, protecting
and promoting these aspects of our
heritage. 6.7 It is our firm view that the
promotion of our living heritage will attract
interest for domestic and international
tourism. 6.8 However, the successful marketing
and promotion of all these products depends on
the collaboration between the two departments.
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7. CONCLUSION
7.1 The final analysis of what we have presented
shows the value of constant and consistent
interaction between DAC and NDT 7.2 It also
emphasises the need to speed up the process of
finalizing the MOU. 7.3 The onus rests upon us as
the DAC to conclude our internal consultative
processes. 7.4 The finalization of the MOU will
serve as a major break through to implement joint
projects.
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Thank you
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