Allow me to note the presence of the Provincial sportswomen of year 2005, Ms Portia Vries, and in his absence the Provincial sportsman of the year, Jongikhaya Nokwe for their achievements in weightlifting and rugby respectively as well as the first African woman to win a medal in weightlifting at the 2006 Commonwealth Games recently held in Melbourne, Ms Babalwa Ndleleni- Ramahlape.

I also want to note the presence of achievers in the Arts and Culture field who were honoured at our 2005 cultural awards. Mr Phillip Dlabantu for his contribution to the performing arts, Mr Willie Bester for his contribution to the visual arts and Mr Hans Rabie for his contribution to museums. Unfortunately Mr Rabie cannot be here today, as he has taken ill. I wish him well.

I would like to welcome some distinguished personalities who are sitting in the gallery today. I refer to individuals and organisations that have made and continue to make a valuable contribution in the field of Culture, Sport and Recreation. Amongst us we have Presidents of Sport Federations, CEO's of Arts and Culture companies and organisations, esteemed sportspersons and artists.

These artists, sportspersons, administrators and leaders play a very important voluntary role in the work of our Department and that of government.

On 8 May 2006, we celebrated the 10th Anniversary of the adoption of our Constitution, a very important document in which the ideals enshrined in the Freedom Charter are firmly embodied.

On 16 June, we will also be celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the uprisings of the youth of 1976, some of them now occupy senior positions in society ensuring that the struggles they fought for, and the ideals of the Freedom Charter are realised.

As we close this year in December, we will be unveiling a memorial for the first victims of this uprising in the Western Cape, namely Xolile Motse from Langa who was killed on 11 August 1976 and Christopher Truter from Bonteheuwel who died on 25 August 1976. This important event will bear testimony of our resolve to build a 'Home For All' and our endeavour to implement our commitment at CODESA to build one nation by bringing the memories of both the Langa and Bonteheuwel communities together. We will celebrate their contributions in the struggle for freedom and also honour Ashley Kriel and Anton Fransch. The details of this event will be communicated to you shortly. Siyabulela Lutsha Siyabulela.

On 8 March, we hosted the launch of the national campaign to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the Women's March against the oppressive pass laws here in the Western Cape. Watint' abafazi, watint' imbokotho. Wathint', imbokotho, watint' abafazi, Uzakufa.

The commemoration of the 1956 march, demonstrates the important role that women have played and continue to play in the shaping of our nation's declarations at CODESA and Kliptown, that we will pursue freedom, equality and security for all irrespective of race, colour or sex, a country free from discrimination. We will be celebrating the role of women at the forefront of the struggle for the achievement of a better life for all and for the advancement of our agenda of building a non-sexist South Africa. Siyabulela bo - Mama Siyabulela.

Speaker, it is also important to remind everyone that it has only been 15 years ago that we as a nation came together at CODESA, to form a national consensus about the road ahead. This is indeed a very short time in the history of any nation. However we have much to celebrate. This prompted the President to state in his State of the Nation Address that our people are convinced that we have entered the Age of Hope, and that we have created the conditions to achieve more rapid progress towards the acceleration of the advancement towards the goal of a better life for all. Siyabulela Maqhawe Siyabulela.

As we enter this Age of Hope and celebrate the optimism of our people, with it comes increased levels of expectation for government to achieve its goals sooner. The resources allocated therefore need to be increased by the acceleration of higher economic growth and development.

Programs to stimulate economic growth

The Department plays a critical part in stimulating local economic growth in municipalities with the provisioning of sports and cultural facilities, including libraries and museums. Through this programme of providing facilities, we are responding to the broad government objectives.

We further contribute towards economic growth through our investment and contribution to cultural festivals and major sporting events. These events market our Province as a major Sport and Culture destination leading to greater opportunities for job creation, skills development, and investment. The promotion of our Province through these major events creates opportunities in tourism and also stimulates the hospitality sector.

Relationship with local government

A very important partner in the implementation of our work with regards to the building of facilities and the hosting of major events and the development of sport and culture are local municipalities. In this regard the Department will restructure itself to meet our objectives and build a sound and good working relationship with local authorities to develop the cultural and sport sector by establishing 6 district offices in each region of our Province. This new approach will contribute towards making local government work better and further advance the objective of a better life for all.

Public entities

The Department deliver services through three public entities: the Western Cape Cultural Commission, the Heritage Western Cape and the Language Committee.

These public entities have a specific mandate. In the main, they play an advisory role to the Provincial Minister and the Department within the framework of the applicable legislation. It is important to note that they are not part of the Department and as such are not part of the development of the strategic direction of the Department.

This Government has a specific fundamental mandate from the electorate: to transform the society, redress the past imbalances and to create a better tomorrow.

We have painfully noted that historically, the Department relegated some of its responsibilities unfairly to these public entities. In this regard I want to take advantage of this platform and thank them for really going that extra-mile.

To ensure that we deliver on our mandate and take full responsibility, the Department will review the funding policy. Whilst the review process is underway, we will administer the awarding of funding to all deserving Arts and Cultural organisations that are in line with our strategic objectives.

The current cultural policy review processes must assist us to unpack the role of the public entities and clearly demarcate the boundaries in order for Government to take its full responsibility to ensure fundamental social transformation.

The Cultural Commission

An amount of R907 269 has been allocated to the Cultural Commission, which is currently responsible for registering and deregistering cultural councils, the managing and marketing of the cultural facilities and the Geographical Names Committee.

Heritage Western Cape

The Council of Heritage Western Cape is the appointed heritage resource management authority for the Province. Heritage Western Cape plays a critical role in the built environment and in the conservation of our heritage landscape.

An amount of R950 000 has been allocated for its programs to preserve and develop the existing heritage sites and resources both tangible and intangible for future generations.

The major challenge the Department faces in this field is the transformation thereof. It is well known that the decades of colonialism have been characterised by the imposition of the beliefs, customs and traditions, culture and history of the former colonial powers and this is still deeply engraved in our heritage landscape.

A further challenge of Heritage Western Cape is a shortage of qualified professionals from the designated groups and this negates the efforts of the Department to transform the Council and have representative staff in the sector.

Attempts to redress this weakness are continuous and we are busy looking at scholarships for candidates from the designated groups to transform the heritage sector within the foreseeable future.

The Council, until recently, had a huge backlog of applications due to inadequate staffing. The recent appointment of a CEO will contribute greatly towards alleviating the workload as we cannot continue to be an obstacle for the stimulation of higher rates of economic growth and development to create more wealth. We aim to be a facilitator thereof, whilst preserving our heritage.

To further enhance this work, we have just held a Provincial Consultative Heritage Conference on 13 May 2006 to accelerate the transformation of this sector and to ensure that we deal with the legacy of our past and create a heritage landscape that reflect the history of all our people further to give impetus to our declarations at Kliptown and Codesa.

The Language Committee of the Western Cape

In terms of the Language Act, the main role of the Language Committee is to advise the Provincial Minister on language matters in or affecting the Western Cape with regard to the three official languages of the province. This includes monitoring the use of the three official languages by the Provincial Government, promoting the principle of multi-lingualism and developing previously marginalized indigenous languages.

The allocated budget for the Language Committee amounts to R602 000 to effectively deliver on its mandate.

In February this year, we launched, a multi-lingualism project targeting schools in conjunction with the Department of Education at Langa. The project will focus on teaching different languages to all our children to enable them to communicate with each other better.

Museums

The Museums Audit of the past year has revealed that there are over 50 museums in the Western Cape, excluding national museums, that collect, research and document artefacts, specimens and oral histories. These include affiliated museums, which are aided, and non-affiliated museums that are not aided. The museums represent means that help our understanding of the past and provide exhibitions, programmes and publications for learning, and promote tourism by developing and maintaining high quality museums.

In tandem with the Audit process of the past year we are reviewing all current legislation applicable to museum services in general that will lead to the process of a new Museums Act for the Province. The objective of the new Act will be to address the cultural, political and economic divide and to ensure that our museums depict the history of all our people to advance our strategic goal of building a non-racial South Africa and a Home for All.

The new legislation will provide a framework for relationships with the non-affiliated, community museums, and a roll out plan to bring community museums into the mainstream will be implemented. In this regard, the Department has been proactive during the past few years, providing assistance to the Lwandle Migrant Labour Museum, the District Six Museum, the Julius Gordon African Collection, the Piketberg and Malmesbury Museums and the Oscar Mpetha Foundation for the Oscar Mpetha House Museum.

In an attempt to transform our museums, we piloted a Scrapbook Project as part of the Oral History Program in September last year. The idea was mooted as a way of collecting and representing community, family and personal histories.

This project is proving to be very popular with museums because it is a method of bringing previously marginalized histories into our museums and allows communities 100 percent control of the representation of their history. We are allocating an amount of R4, 34m for Museum Services.

This year the International Council of Museums invited museums from all over the world to celebrate the theme Museums and Young People on International Museum Day (18 May) a few days ago. The theme of this year was selected to raise awareness of how young people participate in redefining the mission and practices of heritage institutions in the 21st century, and how museums can contribute to shaping tomorrow's society by interacting with young people. Our outreach programmes with youth will focus on the role young people have played in our society and will be linked to the 30th anniversary of Youth Day. Siyabulela Mabhubesi Siyabulela.

Library Services

Mr. Speaker, the Siyabulela Delivery program, has seen the delivery of a brand new library building to the community of Buffelsjag and the hand over of upgraded library buildings to the Barrydale and Zuurbraak communities respectively on 3 May 2006.

We will be contributing R1 648m towards library construction in Vredendal and Haarlem.

Libraries also play a role in sustainable economic development through the availability of resources to empower entrepreneurs through 105 business corners in our libraries. To give practical effect to ASGISA and fight underdevelopment in the rural communities, we will extend the Wheelie wagon service to the following communities: Molsvlei (West Coast), Stofkraal (West Coast), Koekedouw (Witzenberg), Klipdale (Cape Agulhas) and Vleiplaas in Laingsburg.

An amount of R29. 213m, is available for library stock to be utilized largely on reading material to inculcate the culture of reading. The funds are also concentrated on informal material to cater for youth and adults for individual and community development. We are also working on increasing the number of isiXhosa books in our libraries.

Archive Service

The process to transfer the archive function from national government has now been completed and since 1 April 2006 the Western Cape Archives and Records Service is providing a service to preserve our heritage in Roeland Street.

Festivals

The Department funds various festivals in the Western Cape without a clear defined strategic objective. To ensure that we maximise the social, economic and political impact of these festivals, we established a Provincial Task Team to draft a guiding document for Cabinet, taking into account the role of government in development.

Given our development objectives, we would insist that in future, any applications for funding must contribute towards the sustainable development of arts and culture to advance our goal of creating a better life for all.

As mentioned earlier, some of these festivals play an important role in cultural tourism and the economy of the Province. It is therefore essential to take corrective measures to ensure that the economic impact of these festivals is broadened.

We have a responsibility to elevate language-based festivals of the previously marginalized languages. The Xhosa festival piloted at Langa last year, will now become an annual event and we will engage the private sector to ensure that adequate resources are mobilised to elevate the status of this festival for the local and international tourism market.

Initiation Schools

I want to take advantage of this platform to pronounce on the erection of a permanent initiation school in Driftsands. I am against the idea of a permanent building but support the idea of identifying initiation sites and to regulate them.

We are indeed sitting with a time bomb that could explode in our faces anytime if we fail to take decisive actions.

This is a very sensitive issue that must be treated with utmost care and due consideration for the people that are affected. We must consider ourselves, fortunate thus far, as we have not yet experienced tragedies of the scales of Limpopo, North West, Eastern Cape and other provinces. However, this past December 8 initiates were hospitalised and in December 2004, we were shocked by the death of 3 initiates in separate areas of the Province.

I will be appointing a team that will deal with this sensitive matter in consultation with all relevant role players. This team will take into account kukho amaXhosa, Amamfengu, amaHlubi nabeSuthu. The team will ensure that there is proper consultation so that these stakeholders can take ownership of the process.

Integration of Culture and Sport

The Social Capital Incubator Programme launched in the presidential nodal areas has succeeded to integrate culture and sport components for improved service delivery. The program is aimed at the deployment of sport and culture assistants in identified areas where an intervention is required to build social and human capital. The focus of these assistants is the development of sport and culture and to work closely with the relevant organisations to achieve these objectives. This programme will also be expanded to include other areas.
Sport and Recreation

Speaker, Sport has played a very significant role in our country as a strategy for liberation from apartheid and tool for nation building and a means towards reconstruction and development. Whereas sport was used as a strategy to divide and deny certain privileges to some and grant opportunities to a few, it is today used to unity our people so that South Africa truly belongs to all who live in it. More and more, albeit at a slow pace, our sporting landscape is being integrated and is beginning to reflect the true demographics of our country and province. I must however thank those federations that are doing their utmost to speed up transformation.

Sport has become a vehicle that can change the lives of successful athletes and the communities they live in. Many of our successful athletes are an inspiration and role models to the youth in the communities from where they come. Notwithstanding the recent gang activity in Hanover Park, the majority of young soccer players there aspire to become successful soccer players such as Benny. These athletes have used sport to change their lives for the better. This contributed to our strategy of building social capital in these communities by providing alternatives to drug abuse, teenage pregnancy and gangsterism.

Programs

The Department will facilitate numerous programs to ensure mass participation in sport and recreation as well as to unearth talent and develop it to meet our objective, "From Grass Roots to Glory".

Siyadladla Mass Participation Program

In order to give effect to the Siyadlala Mass Participation Programme, and to add value to the Western Cape's social capital formation strategy, the Department is implementing the Community and School Sport Mass Participation Program as a mechanism of building a culture of integrated sport and recreation through structured mass participation. A total of R12,1m has been made available through the contribution of National Government for both these programmes.

To ensure that sport and recreation contributes to the develop initiatives, we have taken giant strides this year to increase the hubs for Siyadlala Mass participation from 11 to 32 hubs as a vehicle to mobilize communities towards sport and recreation.

National Games

In preparation for Team Western Cape's participation in the 2007, S.A. Games, and our participation in the National Indigenous Games in August, we will commence with the selection and training of our teams in June this year.

Sport School

The process of establishing a Sport School is at an advance stage. I want to acknowledge in particular the collaboration with the Department of Education in making this a reality. Advertisements for the first intake in 2007 were placed in the media with minimum selection criteria, inviting prospective pupils who have special academic and sporting talents to apply. The Department of Education is busy finalizing the curriculum for Grade 8 and will also be instrumental in the final selection process. It is envisaged that the school will open in January 2007.

School Sport

Mr. Speaker, on the 25th January we launched a school sport program. The significance of this school sport program is that it is aimed at the reintroduction of Wednesday as the school sport day throughout the Province and in particular in the Metro. This is our intervention to ensure the revival of school sport.

The priority codes for schools are: football, netball, rugby, cricket, volleyball and athletics. Codes such as baseball, gymnastics, softball, basketball, drum majorettes, tennis, table tennis, hockey and chess also enjoy a high profile and are catered for in the national schools program.

We have embarked on a road show to establish the Provincial Coordinating Committee (PROCOC) in line with the national process to ensure the effective coordination and management of school sport. The launch of the PROCOC is scheduled for the end of June as part of the Youth Month Celebrations. Siyabulela Lutsha Siyabulela

The budget for school sport is R17.918m inclusive of the Division of Revenue Grant of R4.85m to be used for the introduction of the School Sport Mass Participation. To illustrate our contribution to job creation, 140 sport assistants will be trained and placed at schools to assist educators in the quest to revive school sport. Sport assistants will receive training in Sport administration, training as coaches, technical officials and umpires in at least five codes of sport. In addition, training on event management and indigenous games are also afforded to the sport assistants.

The Sports Stepping Stones program remains the flagship program of the Department and 150 sport assistants will graduate through the learnership program in August this year. At least 50 sport assistants will be permanently employed within the education and sport and recreation sector. We will have a School Sport Summit later in the year, to develop practical strategies to revive school sport.

In line with our skills development strategy in the sport sector, we will run a series of workshops for the teachers, equipping them with administrative, coaching and technical skills. This intervention will empower teachers with skills needed to properly manage and administer sport in our schools.

International Sports Events and funding

The Department receives annual requests amounting to more than R3 million for international participation of which the budget allocation is only R300 000.
We are finding it increasingly difficult to entertain funding requests emanating from international invitations. The question is whether we will be able to sustain this given the increasing performances and achievements of schools from the Western Cape at a national level.

Sports Federations

The Department has sound relationships with all major sports federations of our Province. This relationship is fundamentally based on an understanding that we will support and assist all federations that are committed to the implementation of the strategic objectives of Government as it relates to transformation. Federations receive an amount of R5m per annum for sport development, capacity building and hosting of major events. Members will agree with me that this is not enough.

I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate the SAFA regions with the progress that they have made with the realignment of the football structures. We hope that they will soon launch the Provincial structure and we remain committed in assisting SAFA to launch this structure.

The Christmas Tinto Under-15 Soccer tournament

The Christmas, Tinto Under-15 Soccer tournament launched last year in Langa will now be rolled out to the entire Western Cape. The Tinto tournament is developmental in nature for the following reasons:

• The professional football clubs in Cape Town both in the PSL and in the Mvela League have agreed to select promising players from this tournament to be taken up in their respective academies
• The Farouk Abrahams Goalkeeping Academy is part of this program.
• This tournament intends leaving a legacy by improving existing football facilities.

Sports Infrastructure Developments

I am happy to announce that R1, 5million has been set for the development of Langa stadium as part of the Christmas Tinto Under 15 Tournament's legacy. In addition, the Department will be making R500 000.00 per facility available to 4 rural regions. This is aimed at farming communities in particular, the farm worker development project. Siyabulela Marshalla Siyabulela

The Department is also involved with a joint venture with ABSA-Barclays Bank to develop a multipurpose sports facility in Gansbaai to the value of R3million.

The Bayhill Premier Cup

The Department has the responsibility of assisting with the organisation of the annual Bayhill Under-19 Premier Cup. This international youth tournament is a well-established and important platform to unearth future Bafana Bafana stars. It is well known that players such as Benny McCarthy and Moeneeb Josephs were discovered at this tournament. The event also presents an opportunity for the private sector to come on board as it is currently without a major sponsor.

Football Club Development Program

The National Department in conjunction with the Department has identified a development program that will give practical expression to our endeavours to develop football. This program will strategically identify two clubs per region to be included in an incubator football development program. In each region, these teams will consist of a boys and girls team. These clubs will be assisted with capacity building courses consisting of:

• Administration,
• Football clinics benefiting approximately 500 players,
• Referees courses benefiting 36 referees
• Coaching courses benefiting 36 coaches

Netball development

We are also adopting a minimum of two netball clubs in each of the six regions. These clubs will be afforded basically everything to equip them for competitiveness.

A Netball tournament will be held in August in honour of all girls and women who have been victims of domestic violence. This tournament is part of the Department's contribution in highlighting the fight against children, girls and women's abuse and the fight against domestic violence.
Siyabulela bo Mama Siyabulela.

Major Sports Events

To contribute towards the stimulation of the economy and marketing of the Province as mentioned before, the Department will continue to support the hosting of major sports events. In addition to the annual events and in conjunction with Boland athletics we will be hosting the first athletics test between South Africa and the United States of America, in November.

Football Stadia

Speaker, let me take this opportunity to congratulate Sinethemba High School of Phillipi, on winning the national Coca Cola championship three weeks ago in Durban. You have done us proud.

It is also appropriate that I congratulate the Hanover Park Football club with their achievements over the past season. Not only did they reach the quarter final of the ABSA Cup, but they are currently in the process of campaigning to compete in the Mvela league next season. I want to wish them well and I am convinced that they would do the people of Hanover Park, Cape Town and Western Cape proud by competing in the Mvela League next season.

Speaker, allow me to welcome to Cape Town and the Western Cape, Manning Rangers from KZN, and thank them for choosing to relocate to Paarl effectively boosting football in the province by also competing in the Mvela league.

On Saturday 13 May 2006, Vasco Da Gama took a giant step towards qualification to play in the PSL by beating Bush Bucks 2-0. I wish them well with the rest of their campaign to play in the PSL next season.

We must also congratulate Santos for finishing in the top 8 of the league and wish them success in the coming season.

To Ajax Cape Town, I know you can do much better and I wish them well for the coming season. In order for these professional teams to do well they need our support. The Football summit planned for later this year will serve as a platform to begin discussing the type of support we can afford them.

The success and progress of our local football clubs are also putting more pressure on us to deal with the availability of football stadia, for these teams to compete in. Currently, Athlone stadium is under construction and cannot host big matches, as only the main stand can be used. The imminent commencement of construction at the Green Point stadium will also make it unavailable in the near future.

The upgrade of the Philippi stadium should therefore be expedited to ensure that these clubs are not forced to play big matches in other cities. The impasse with the utilisation of Newlands stadium as an interim alternative should be resolved.

These are all positive pointers about the prospects of establishing Cape Town as a force to be reckoned with in the soccer fraternity despite our lack of football facilities.

World Cup 2010

Speaker, I am happy to announce that the processes, in preparation for the hosting of the 2010 FIFA world cup are progressing rapidly. The Environmental Impact Assessment process, currently in progress should be concluded shortly.

The design process will be completed in mid June for submission of the 1st draft to National Treasury by 30 June 2006. The design and development team to manage this process has been appointed.

A final proposal will be submitted to National Treasury at the end of October 2006, which will allow for the tender process to commence and we hope that the construction of the stadium will start at the end of January 2007 and be completed in 2008.

I want to take this opportunity to thank Minister Brown and her Department for their contribution towards the establishment of a Special Purpose Vehicle to drive and manage this process. The draft legislation that will be submitted to Cabinet soon, will enable the establishment of this structure. The process for public comment will commence in the 2nd week of July 2006 and I wish to urge members to cooperate in ensuring that we expedite this process.

Conclusion

Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to present this budget to this house today, with the knowledge that the Department is geared towards the strategic objectives as presented by our President in his state of the nation address, amongst others to achieve more rapid progress towards the acceleration of the advancement towards the goal of a better life for all. I thank you.

For more information, please contact:

Mandla Yeki
Spokesperson for Ministry
Cultural Affairs, Sport and Recreation
Tel: 021 483 9804
Fax: 021 483 9801
Mobile: 082 553 3477
Protea Assurance Building, Green Market Square, Cape Town