President Jacob Zuma addressed the cultural sector
Last edited: November 24, 2009
Written by Business and Arts South Africa
The event, which took place at Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, saw the Presidency bring out the Big Guns as part of what he called opening “a conversation with every sector of our society in the country, as an important element of a democratic culture”.
President Jacob Zuma addressed the cultural sector at a meeting held on November 17th. The Ministers of Finance, Police, National Planning, Communications, MECs of Arts and Culture, Minister and Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture, and the Minister of the Presidency were all in attendance.
In the audience were Hugh Masekela, Steve Kekana, John Kani, Lebo M Ringo, Sipho Hotstix, Desiree Maarkgraaf, Sello make Ka Ncube, Kwela Tebza and several other representatives of the cultural industries.
In his speech, the President focused on the questions which had been raised by the sector over two earlier meetings – including funding, intellectual property, piracy, the SABC and local content, and social security.
The President said that the government was focusing in its medium term expenditure framework, to use arts and culture to promote cultural diversity and for bringing people together.
He said he saw arts as a key economic activity that could drive change nationally. President Zuma said he wanted to see the development of the rural cultural industry, sector; saying he was looking at the growth of traditional music, composers, crafter and painters.
Crucially the President urged the arts community to organize themselves, to unionise and to engage.
“(G)overnment can play its part, but there is a lot of work that must be done by artists and the private sector to improve working conditions in the industry,” President Zuma said. “We would like to urge artists to unite. It makes it difficult to work with the sector as there is no single structure that government should work with. Unity will also enable artists to engage the industry, especially recording company to discuss desired transformation.
“We know that this sector is very individualistic, but working as individuals will not improve your bargaining power. All the issues we have raised which require further work, necessitate the existence of an organised formation. We will therefore keep on reminding you about this need to organise yourselves.”
Disappointingly the response to the President’s address and to the Ministers in general by the arts sector showed a disturbing lack of organisation. The event at times verged on the chaotic with raised voices, excessive self-promotion, heckling and speakers refusing to hand over the microphone to others; these were just some of the responses during the open Q and A. Ironically this display only served to highlight the lack of the very thing the President was asking of the sector.
The important issues, raised by some of the speakers, were lost in the melee, and ultimately were not responded to by the panel from government. Indeed as the president said in closing, quote unquote “the problems need to be engaged in an organized fashion.” “Identify and task people to be speak for you,” were among his parting words.
In his response to the audience, Minister of Finance, Mr Pravin Gordhan, urged artists to recognise that there was a recession and that the country was looking at a challenging time ahead. In taking cognizance of this, artists needed to be more proactive in helping themselves during this economic
Yes, it is the role of artists to speak truth to power and there is no doubt that the cultural industry has many, many real issues, which need to be resolved. These include the current crisis in the local TV and film Industry, the lack of legal and financial support and social security, the lack of venues and provincial support, piracy, intellectual property issues, funding within the sector, amongst others.
But the way to move ahead on these issues would be a strengthening of the organization and unionisation of the arts community. The arts community needs to be able to present those issues in a formalized and appropriate manner in order for it to be heard, and acted upon, in the appropriate forum.
To read President Zuma’s full speech click here.
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