Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport Budget Speech 2013

Honourable Speaker
Honourable Premier
Cabinet Colleagues
Leader of the Official Opposition
Honourable Members
Chairpersons of our three public entities
Presidents of the regional sport councils
Presidents of sport federations and clubs
Ladies and Gentlemen.

Honourable Speaker, when Premier Helen Zille delivered her State of the Province Address on 22 February 2013 she stated that:

“the state has a crucial role to play in combating social ills and in protecting our young people.  But it is impossible to resolve any of them without everyone playing a role:  individuals through the choices they make, parents through the responsibility they take and the guidance they give, whole communities through the norms they establish, institutions like places of worship and schools in the leadership they provide, as well as the services offered by the state.  That is why we speak of a ‘whole-of-society’ approach.”

The budget of R445.309m which has been allocated to the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport is aligned with the Premier’s statement. It aims to help create a Western Cape in which inhabitants, in particular our youth, feel empowered to realise that they have options and that they can confidently take responsibility for the decisions they make.

Honourable Speaker, a democracy guarantees freedom, a cornerstone of a liberal democracy. It is important that we provide people with freedoms they can use. Honourable Speaker, my Department:

• Provides libraries so that users can use their freedom to read, reflect, learn and access the global village through information and communication technology (ICT) infrastructure, whether they live in urban or in rural areas
• Provides heritage services so that the people of the Province can use their freedom to celebrate their heritage and cultural assets
• Provides museums so that local people can use their freedom to write their own local history and build local narratives of what that history means to them
• Provides cultural services so that cultural groups can use their freedom to register cultural councils and take other measures to promote and preserve indigenous and cultural rights; and
• Provides sport and recreation services so that sportspeople can use their freedom to choose the sport codes they want to participate in and promote.

Honourable Speaker, the theme, freedom you can use, is my narrative for the rest of this term of office as we have realised that freedom means very little if people cannot use it. When people use their freedom they become active citizens. Government provides leadership when it creates an enabling environment. Active citizenship, leadership and a capable state are the instruments that promote freedom you can use.

Honourable Speaker, this budget is aimed at delivering on our commitment to increasing participation, particularly amongst our youth, in sport, recreation, arts and culture. This remains the cornerstone of our work.

Furthermore, we remain determined to fulfil our obligation to ensure that our youth have greater access to our libraries, museums and heritage and language services. We are mindful that this can only be achieved through effective management of our resources and the implementation of sound administrative processes. Enhanced service delivery strengthened by the core values of integrity, accountability, competence, responsiveness and caring is the golden thread that runs through all our programmes and we believe this will infuse our programme with quality and effective corporate governance.

Honourable Speaker, an amount of R187.841m is allocated to enhancing our library service in the Province.

Access to libraries and archives as information resources across cultures is fundamental to a thriving culture, economy and democracy. Libraries and archives connect people to information, knowledge management, to people, and to opportunities. Libraries give access to freedom you can use.

Libraries are nodes connecting the local learning setting – whether it is of a formal or informal kind – with the global resources of information and knowledge. Public libraries can therefore play a fundamentally important role in the development of systems of lifelong learning. The development of ICT networks in the Library Service has already given users even of local public libraries access to information from across the world. The Department will therefore continue to support local libraries as they are not only storehouses of reading for information and leisure, but also are often the centre of community life. Support for libraries in category B3 (vulnerable) municipalities and the roll-out of enhanced ICT to public libraries will be further consolidated in this financial year.

Speaker, the recent launch of Library Week 2013 under the theme “Educate Yourself @ Your Library”, highlighted the pivotal role libraries play in the lives of our communities. Libraries build social inclusion by providing public space where communities can work together at interpersonal and community level.

Speaker, an amount of R102m will be transferred to municipalities. This funding will address the unfunded mandate in category B3 municipalities; contribute towards the completion of kwaNonqaba Library in Mossel Bay and Nkqubela Library in Robertson. This Government will also contribute to the first phase of the construction of a library building in Prince Alfred Hamlet and the upgrading of the Knysna Library. It will also contribute towards the remuneration of approximately 331 staff appointed at public libraries and the installation of book detection systems for securing library assets.

The provision of Internet access at public libraries has seen an average of 20 libraries per annum benefiting from the Department’s Rural ICT Project. This number will increase significantly with the roll out of the Western Cape’s Broadband Initiative and will result in 87 new rural sites (Libraries and “wheelie wagon” mobile libraries) being connected during this financial year.

The balance of the funds will be used for procurement of library material for distribution to 348 library centres.

Honourable Speaker, the recent incident involving the auctioning in London of documents dating back to the days of Jan van Riebeeck is worrying as we believe that they might have been stolen from our Provincial Archives a few years ago. I have instructed my Department to pursue every possible legal avenue to ensure that the documents in question are returned as these are a critical part of the heritage of our country and must therefore be preserved and protected for the benefit of current and future generations.

Honourable Speaker, National Archives Week will be celebrated in the week of 6-10 May 2013 at the Western Cape Archives and Records Service under the theme “Archives – Looking into the Past”. The event will include exhibitions about the various cultural communities in the Western Cape.  

Honourable Speaker, 2013 marks the 175th commemoration of the abolition of slavery in 1838.

Our Museum Service will contribute to commemorating this historic event by developing a travelling exhibition which will be taken into the hinterland and along the coastal areas of our Province where it can stimulate dialogue and reconciliation through the acknowledgement of this important formative element of our past and the way slavery continues to shape our lives.

The central challenge for our Museum Service is to lead museums towards ensuring that they remain relevant to contemporary society. In 2013/14 we must take every opportunity to do so, guided by this year’s theme for International Museum Day: “Museums (memory + creativity) = social change”. 

Honourable Speaker, Museums receive an allocation of R43.464m. Progress has been made in the ongoing work of transforming exhibition displays to be more representative of all the components of the local communities within which they are located. To this end, new permanent exhibitions are being installed at Hout Bay Museum, at CP Nel Museum in Oudsthoorn (new exhibitions in the Ostrich Hall) as well as at the Wheat Industry Museum in Moorreesburg.

Furthermore, the Togryersmuseum in Ceres secured R2.557m through a partnership between the local museum, the Department of Transport and Public Works, the National Lottery Distribution Trust Fund and my Department. The funds will be used for upgrading the museum infrastructure and for adding much-needed facilities. 

The ongoing research to nominate sites related to the Struggle, including the Rex Trueform Building in Salt River, Cape Town and the Rocklands Community Hall site in Mitchells Plain, reflects our resolve to promote social inclusion in the identification of heritage sites. 

Honourable Speaker, language is one of the vital elements underpinning the development of cultural warmth and social inclusion. The Translating, Editing and Interpreting Unit will continue providing language support services to all the departments of the provincial government in order that every inhabitant of this province can be served in the official language of his or her choice. 

The Language Policy Implementation Unit and the Western Cape Language Committee are continuing to implement a programme to enable parents, carers and teachers of Deaf children to learn South African Sign Language. The Sign Language training sessions in Khayelitsha are aimed at building social inclusion, particularly giving the Deaf children of parents participating in the training a sense of belonging and inclusion in the family.

The XhosAfrika Network is aimed atincreasing the footprint of isiXhosa and Afrikaans in the public domain.

A pocket-size English-isiXhosa terminology booklet will be developed and launched to mark International Translation Day in September 2013. This booklet, which will provide standardised isiXhosa terminology for language practitioners in the Western Cape Government and other interested parties, will help to promote cultural warmth by fostering an appreciation for isiXhosa.

Honourable Speaker, a great concern is the way certain leading South African banks are failing to offer their clients service in isiXhosa at Western Cape ATMs. Honourable Speaker, this is a flagrant disregard for the language rights enshrined in our Constitution and the Western Cape Language Policy. IsiXhosa must enjoy the same rights as English and Afrikaans and I am duty-bound to ensure that it happens. I will therefore be taking this matter up with the banks concerned. Now that the Use of Official Languages Act, 2012 has become a national law, I will closely follow the process of making regulations in terms of the Act to ensure that they provide for the particular language requirements of the Province. It is my intention to ensure that Afrikaans maintains its rightful place as an official language as per the Western Cape Provincial Languages Act, 1998, and the provincial Language Policy. 

The Department recognises that applied language skills are scarce skills that need to be nurtured in service of achieving its mandate: to promote multilingualism; to support equal treatment for Afrikaans, isiXhosa and English; and to further develop indigenous languages which have historically been marginalised. The Language Services Unit will continue to execute its mandate in partnership with other like-minded entities.

Honourable Speaker, creating an environment in which the people of the Western Cape are able to preserve, develop and promote their culture creates the freedom that you can use.

During 2012 the Initiation Framework was conceptualised and approved. It has been translated and is now available in Afrikaans, isiXhosa, Sesotho and English. At the end of May 2013 the Department will, in partnership with the Department of Health, host an Initiation Summit. At that event we will embark on expanding our work beyond health and facilitation aspects and enter into a dialogue with communities in order to better appreciate this cultural practice. We expect to learn how best we as government can support the preservation of this important rite of passage within the context of a dignified and safe environment for all.

The Department will roll out training for using the National Anthem Toolkit, developed by the Arts and Culture component in collaboration with Lungile Jacobs and Voices of Cape Town.

The Department has contributed to remembering the legacy of our jazz artists by commissioning the Jazz Legends mural in the Artscape Theatre Complex. We will launch the booklet about the artists depicted in the artwork against the background of their music as part of our Youth Month programme at Artscape during June 2013.  

The annual Arts Week event will be held in the Cape Winelands during September 2013, and will promote cultural warmthas it will focus on diverse aspects of culture, including a focus on rites of passage as a means of nation-building and promoting a sense of belonging. 

Honourable Speaker, I use this opportunity to announce that I will soon be launching the “My culture,Your culture, Our heritage” programme to promote cultural warmth and support work in service of enhancing freedom you can use.

Honourable Speaker, the budget for the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) programme for Cultural Affairs has been increased to R6.886m in 2013/14, following the successful creation of 122 work opportunities throughout the Western Cape in the current financial year. 

The budgetary increase in the new financial year will provide 170 full-time meaningful work opportunities in a wide range of programmes, from culture and heritage tourism projects at affiliated museums, to maintenance of infrastructure at cultural and heritage institutions, to digitisation of archival and heritage records.

My Department has seen and experienced the power and potential of the arts as a unifying force within communities. We must take advantage of the many opportunities available to us. Our objective is to create socially just and inclusive communities in which all individuals have the opportunity to develop and their talents and use them to make a productive contribution to society.

Honourable Speaker, R104.916m is allocated to Sport and Recreation.

The innovative MOD [Mass participation; Opportunity and access; Development and growth] Sport Centres Programme will continue to be the foundation of our After School Programme..

The beneficial impact of these MOD Centres was recently captured in a storytelling competition about the value of sport and development in communities. The competition was initiated in partnership with the Interdisciplinary Centre of Excellence for Sport Science and Development (ICESSD) of the University of the Western Cape as part of a major research study entitled “The Case for Sport in the Western Cape: The Socio-Economic Benefits of Sport and Recreation”. 

The focus of the competition was on the positive impact of sport and recreation in various communities all over the Province, in rural and in urban areas. After an invitation was widely distributed, we received stories from primary and secondary schools, university students and MOD centres across the Western Cape.

Two MOD Centre participants submitted stories that were in the top 10: Nicole Barends from White City in Saldanha, and Nosipho Engelbrecht from Esselenpark High School in Worcester.

Nosipho Engelbrecht wrote the following words:

“In Worcester at the moment there is so much gang violence that people are not even shocked anymore when they find a dead body lying on the pavement, because it has become a common thing. These young gangsters have so much anger inside of them. If only they could that anger in a good way. Just imagine if they could express that anger through kicking a ball; no goal keeper would be able to catch that ball. If they could dodge rugby players on the field like they dodge bullets. They would score tries and not even the score board would be able to keep up with the team. Legends would be born and crime buried. It would be so great if gangsters could solve problems with a rugby match. No one would be killed but the winning team would earn their respect. I could already picture it (JCYs vs. Outlaws). The crime rate would rapidly decrease. And the youth would have a brighter future to concentrate on.

Everything starts with a dream and through hard work and determination. That dream could be turned into a reality. A child in sport is a child out of court. That is the dream and us (the youth) can make it possible.”

Nicole Barends had this to say:

“Sport & Recreation can help my community especially the youth to start believing in themselves and in their talents. With their programmes they can bring back positive influences to change the behaviour of disbelief in my community.

My community, Saldanha in the West Coast, is a very beautiful place with lots of talented people and tourist attractions. Sadly we are struggling with a lot of social problems like drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, alcoholism and a lack of entertainment for the youth. Since the start of the sport and recreation programme there has been a huge change in the behaviour of the youth. They started believing in themselves again and the message has been sent out that anything is possible if you just believe in yourself no matter what your circumstances are.

Sports and recreation also helped a lot of the youth who never participated in any activities before. They started living a healthier lifestyle and started to act as role models in the community. Many of them, who never communicated with each other before, have learned to bond and work as a team.

For myself, sport and recreation really gave me more self-confidence, because I’m not really a social person. I love dancing and acting, but I’ve never showed my full potential, because I am a very shy person. Through the sport programme I practice daily and built up a lot of confidence to perform in front of a lot of people.

I have a friend who had a drug addiction for almost 4 months now, but after I invited her to join me for a sporting activity one day, she enjoyed it so much that she built enough trust in one of the sport and recreation coordinators to share her story of drug abuse. They told her to focus on her talents. The attention she received made her become a different person. She has been away from drugs for almost 2 months.”

Honourable Speaker well-resourced and well-managed MOD Centres impact positively on communities and the youth enjoy freedom they can use. The Department will give the MOD Centre programme an additional boost of R22.095m over the term of the 2013 Medium Term Expenditure Framework to provide more after-school sport, recreation, life skills programmes for school-going youth and dedicated facilities for them to complete their school homework. The product offering at these MOD Centres has been reviewed and greater emphasis will be placed on variety and quality as a means of increasing participation. The partnership with sister departments such as the Department of Social Development, the Western Cape Education Department, Department of Health and Department of Community Safety, including Chrysalis, will be further strengthened and leveraged to enrich the MOD Centre experience for our learners. In the coming financial year, we will strengthen 32 of the Western Cape’s best performing MOD Centres with additional staff.

Honourable Speaker, last year I announced a “chess revolution” and my Department embarked on a number of interventions which supported the renewed interest in chess. The following highlights are worth noting:

• The visit of former Grandmaster, Gary Kasparov to Khayelitsha in March 2012.
• Over 2 000 young people participating in the SA Chess Championships at the University of Cape Town.
• Dantelle Joubert winning a sport bursary for chess following her outstanding performance at the 2012 National Top School Championships.

And of course a major highlight is South Africa’s first Grandmaster-Elect, Kenny Solomon. Kenny is my special guest today. He is accompanied by Andre Baard, The Managing Director of SA Bunking & Trading which has generously sponsored Kenny’s efforts over the past four years.

Kenny was born in Mitchells Plain in 1979. In 1999, at the age of 19, he won the SA Open Championships in Cape Town and has since won the prestigious competition four times. He has represented South Africa at every Chess Olympiad since 1998. He tied for first place at the Dover International tournament in Italy, becoming the first South African to do so.

He became the SA Closed Champion in 2003. In the same year he came 2^nd in the African Individual Championships in 2003 and received International Master status. In 2012 he scored two Grandmaster norms at the Olympiad in Turkey, and thus became our country’s first ever Grandmaster-Elect.

At a local level he has represented his club Mitchells Plain and the club won the Western Province (WP) League. He has played Board One for WP at the Inter-Union Championships on numerous occasions and WP won the event for ten consecutive years.

Kenny is a symbol of what can be achieved. He has shown that South Africans from Mitchells Plain, Cape Town, can compete with the best in the world.

Honourable Speaker, chess teaches personal responsibility and consequences for individual choices. It is well documented that chess enhances maths and science ability. It is also well documented that our economy needs a work force that has the necessary science and maths competencies that will ensure that we are able to compete effectively with the rest of the world.

Honourable Speaker, chess is an unforgiving sport. You cannot blame the weather or the referee for a mistake on the board. The individual’s preparation and reasoning is all that matters. These are critical life lessons for our youth.

The success of our chess revolution over the past year will be given further impetus in 2013. Tomorrow, Kenny Solomon will give a demonstration in his home town, Mitchells Plain. The next day he will be delivering a lecture at the University of the Western Cape. During his visit to Cape Town, Kenny will also be at the WP High Performance Training Camp where he will be presenting a lecture to 50 players who will represent WP at the SA Junior Closed Championships.

It is our intention to over the next few months to install chess sets in public spaces such as the Sea Point Promenade, the Waterfront as well as in museums.

Honourable Speaker, chess is more than just a game. It remains one of the cheapest options that we have to equip our youth with life-changing skills while at the same time enhancing maths and science and their ability to prosper and make a meaningful contribution to society. It is important that we all support this initiative.

Honourable Speaker, last year I announced a chess revolution and we are seeing the fruits of this revolution. Today I am announcing a “netball revolution” in the Western Cape. This will be driven through increased and accelerated support to netball federations through our club development, MOD Centre and Farm Worker Sport programmes.

Fifty netball clubs are currently part of the Club Development Programme and this number will be significantly increased in the next financial year. I will also be engaging municipalities with the view of upgrading netball infrastructure in the regions. Our Farm Worker Sport Programme will also be ensuring that viable netball leagues are introduced as part of our farm worker sport initiatives. Netball is growing rapidly and the advent of professional netball will no doubt give further stimulus to this. I believe that through greater support we will be able to change the life of many a young girl in urban areas as well as in the rural parts of the Western Cape.

Honourable Speaker, this budget takes cognisance of the fact that greater participation and access is only possible through the formation of effective partnerships to generate opportunity, enable redress, and ensure much improved, efficient, equitable and accessible service delivery. It is further mindful that the rural regions of the Western Cape must receive a fair share of the opportunities that the Province has to offer.

For the budget year 2013/14 the Department will be providing an amount of R1.73m for eight municipalities to implement a total of 11 sport projects. These municipalities are Berg River, Prince Albert, Cape Winelands, Overstrand, Oudtshoorn, Langeberg, and Swartland and Cedarberg. The projects include a cricket pitch, netball fields, BMX tracks, extension of a gymnasium, rugby, football and an athletic track in Graafwater (Cederberg Municipality).

R100 000 has also been made available for a feasibility study of a cycling track in Oudtshoorn. This is in response to a request from South Western Districts (SWD) Cycling that consideration be given to the development of a competition track in Oudtshoorn. SWD Cycling is currently the top cycling federation in South Africa and has been pivotal in growing the sport in the greater Oudtshoorn area. The good work being done in the SWD region is being recognised and supported by my Department with the inclusion of cycling as one of the codes offered by the recently-established Sport Academy based in Oudtshoorn. SWD Cycling is represented here today by its President, Corné Bence.

Honourable Speaker, our partnership with theNedbank Sports Trust Development Cycling Programme has resulted in kits and bicycles being donated to 165 learners who have were also given the opportunity to participate in the recently held 36^th Pick n Pay Argus Cycle Tour which is represented here today by Dave Bellairs, CEO and chief organiser of the Tour.

Our collective congratulations should go to him and sponsors for once again delivering a spectacular event. The Pick n Pay Argus Cycle Tour is the single biggest timed cycle race in the world. Participants come from across the globe to participate and enjoy the spectacular views along the route. We are indeed grateful to the organisers and for their contribution to sport tourism in the Western Cape.

A highlight of the partnership between my Department and the Nedbank Sports Trust Development Cycling Programme has been the sterling performance of Eben Dearling from De Doorns Development Club who completed the 109km route in an unofficial time of 3 hours, 8 minutes. This is a truly remarkable achievement and I look forward to similar performances from development cyclists in the near future.

Honourable Speaker, the Nedbank Sports Trust initiative, the Sport Trust and Pareto Limited, owners of the Tygervalley Shopping Centre built the first multi-purpose sport court in the Western Cape. This facility, which is located at Dr Richard van der Ross Primary School in Belhar and where a MOD Centre has been operating for some time, has a 20-year lifespan and 15-year warranty. Made up of interlocking tiles, the court provides a high level of “lateral forgiveness” which minimises the risk of impact injuries on the joints of players, especially young players. It has also been subject to an environmental audit and has been given “Zero Waste” status, which is in line with the “green” policy of the Sports Trust to protect the environment in its work. This is in full accord with the Western Cape Government’s green policy. The sporting codes to be played on this court include: 5-a-side soccer (futsal), netball, basketball, tennis and volleyball.

Honourable Speaker, I intend engaging with other potential sponsors to encourage them to partner with us to place more sports facilities in our communities.

Agbare Speaker, ons skryf daagliks nuwe geskiedenis in die Wes-Kaap en genees so die wonde van die verlede. Met die onlangse publikasie, Karoo Kombuis, deur Sydda Essop van Beaufort Wes beskryf sy die Karoo se kulturele warmte. Met haar boek skep sy nuwe hoop  vir die mense van die Karoo en sy slaag daarin om sosiale inklusiwiteit te bevorder deur Karoo-resepte uit alle kulture aan ons voor te hou. Sydda Essop se boek, Karoo Kombuis, beeld die warmte van ons kulturele verskeidenheid uit en so bring sy ons Karoo-mense nader aan mekaar. Daarvoor is sy in Februarie vanjaar met ’n Ministeriële Toekenning vir die bevordering van Sosiale Inklusiwiteit beloon .

Op soortgelyke wyse skep Floris Brown hoop met sy publikasie, Teater van die verlore tyd.  Floris Brown se bekroonde versamelbundel  bring verskeie mense van verskillende  taal-, kleur-en etniese groepe bymekaar en daar word vol emosie na mense en hul omgewing verwys.  Hierdie digbundel slaag daarin om deur die subteks van kulturele warmte Afrikaans, Engels, isiXhosa en Nederlands nader aan mekaar te bring. Jong Xhosa-digters deel die platform met Afrikaanse digters sodat kultuurgapings vernou. Met sy gedig, SA, ons Land, skep Floris Brown hoop in die mense van Suid –Afrika.

In ’n ander publikasie, Die Wellingtonse Klopse, beeld Michael le Cordeur en Marlene Le Roux die ryk geskiedenis van Wellington se mense uit. Onder redaksie van Ria Olivier bewerkstellig die publikasie kulturele hervorming en stel dit ‘n unieke kulturele praktyk aan ander kulture bekend. Die Wellingtonse Klopse -100 jaar se onvertelde stories werp lig op ’n musiektradisie wat ná meer as 100 jaar steeds daarin slaag om jong mense te inspireer om hierdie platform te gebruik om hul musiektalent uit te leef.

Agbare Speaker, ons erfenis is ons toekoms en daarombelê hierdie regering ook in Khayelitsha se erfenis. Ons gaan in die nuwe boekjaar die erfenis van Khayelitsha in ’n uitstalling deur die Khayelitsha Museumgroep uitbeeld. 

Agbare Speaker, ek maak ook bekend dat ek my Department opdrag gegee het om die erfenis van Atlantis na te vors, te dokumenteer en dan ’n kultuur- en erfenisbate saam te stel. Saam met die mense van Atlantis gaan ons, op inklusiewewyse, onvertelde stories dokumenteer. Dit is die rol van plaaslike en gemeenskapsleiers om hoop te bied wat inspireer. Die biblioteek sal die stories en suksesse van die mense van Atlantis verwelkom.

Die Wes-Kaap, agbare Speaker, maak vrede met sy verlede. So het die Breedevallei Hoop- en Versoeningsprojek vanjaar ’n vredestreinrit vanaf Worcester na Pretoria Sentrale Gevangenis onderneem om Stefanus Coetzee, die Shoprite-bomplanter van 1989, te ontmoet. Stefanus het om vergifnis gevra en talle slagoffers het hom vergewe. Sodoende kan die inwoners van Worcester genesing vind en die toekoms met nuwe hoop  aanpak. Die Wes-Kaapse regering wil hiermee hul opregte dank aan die Breedevallei Hoop- en Versoeningsprojek en die Breedevallei Munipaliteit uitspreek vir hul leierskap om ons wonde te genees en versoening, ware versoening te bring. Ek doen ’n beroep op die mense van Breedevallei om saam met Korrektiewe Dienste die suksesverhaal te dokumenteer sodat  die narratiewe van hoop deur almalgelees kan word.

Honourable Speaker, two sport events in 2012 demonstrated the power of sport to build social inclusion.

Who can forget the heroic performances of our Western Cape and South African Paralympic Gold Medallists Arnu Fourie, Ilse Hayes, Fanie van der Merwe and Charles Bouwer, or the pride we felt when Western Province Rugby won the Currie Cup in 2012.

Mr Speaker, 2012 started off nightmarishly for Western Province Rugby. The teams lost its captain, Schalk Burger, and a number of other key players to injury. The departure of senior Springbok player Jaque Fourie added to their woes. However, the rest of the team showed firm resolve and fought courageously to win the Currie Cup for the first time in 11 years. The President of Western Province Rugby, Mr Thelo Wakefield, is my guest today.

Both these events galvanised ordinary South Africans to rally around that which unites us … our common identity, our common nationhood, our love for our country.

Speaker, in conclusion I wish to thank the Head of Department Mr Brent Walters and his officials for their commitment to improving the lives of others.

A special thanks to Adv. Estienne Pretorius, my Head of Ministry, and my ministerial staff for their support.

Speaker, I wish to express my thanks to the Premier for her leadership and my Cabinet colleagues for their guidance and support. I extend a special word of thanks to my wife, Faeza, my sons, Ivan and William, and my father and mother for their undying support and generosity in allowing me the space to serve the inhabitants of the Western Cape.

Honourable Speaker, it gives me great pleasure to table in this house the Budget of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport for 2013 in the amount of R445.309m.

I thank you

Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport Budget Speech 2013 in Afrikaans

Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport Budget Speech 2013 in isiXhosa