Pretoria - Arts and Culture Minister, Paul Mashatile says the outcome of the public participation process on the revised draft White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage should reflect a multi-cultural society.
“The realities of the day required for the White Paper to be reviewed, government must assume its responsibility and lead the process. As we do that, we must be inclusive to ensure that the final product is acceptable to everyone in the sector.
“We are a multi-cultural society and the outcome of this process (White Paper Review) should reflect that,” he said.
Mashatile was speaking at the review workshop on Friday where he presented a revised draft White Paper.
Director-General of the Department, Sibusiso Xaba argued in his presentation that one of the modern-day realities was that the arts, culture and heritage sector had to do more with little resources.
He said while the department would continue to adhere to good governance and compliance, the “shrinking budget” required that the department did things differently to ensure that it spent most of its budget on service delivery.
“One of the possibilities is to consider clustering some of the compliance functions of our public entities, it is not economically viable to have a Board of Directors for each of our 28 public entities,” said Xaba.
The department will take the draft White Paper to Parliament, where it is expected that parliament will conduct its own public participation process and conclude the process by the end of the year.
The White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage is the main policy framework for the department and the sector.
It provides a vision and is a basis for the current institutional framework in the sector. However, it is important to acknowledge that at the time when the White paper was adopted (1996), it was meant for a branch or programme within what was then the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology.
The establishment of a separate Ministry in 2004 served as government’s acknowledgement of the importance and relevance of arts, culture and heritage in national priorities.
The Department of Arts and Culture thus believes its mandate has expanded since the adoption of the White Paper in 1996. The review process must fully respond to the mandate of the department.
The Mzansi Golden Economy Strategy has also enhanced the role of arts and culture in sustainable economic growth and development. - SAnews.gov.za
