Media Statement: Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport Budget Address 2013 | Western Cape Government

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Media Statement: Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport Budget Address 2013

25 March 2013

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.

A democracy guarantees freedom, a cornerstone of a liberal democracy. It is important that we provide people with freedoms they can use. 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.

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.

The highlights of my Department’s budget are:

  • The Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport receives a total allocation of R445.309 million to work towards its vision of a socially inclusive, creative and active Western Cape.
  • The MOD Centre programme will receive funding in the amount of R22.095 million (conditional grant and equitable share funding). In the coming financial year, 32 of the Province’s best performing MOD Centres will be strengthened with additional staff and sport coaches.
  • In 2013/14, R187.841 million will go towards enhancing the Province’s 351 library service points and “wheelie wagon” mobile libraries project.
  • R6.886 million has been allocated to strengthening Expanded Public Work Programme initiatives in the fields of culture, sport, archives and museums.
  • The allocation for the Museum Service is R43.464 million.

Following the very successful focus on chess in last year’s budget, I will be announcing a Netball Revolution in my 2013/14 budget address.

I will also give notice of my intention to, line with my promotion of cultural warmth, be announcing a project, my culture, your culture our heritage later this year.

The Budget which the Department of Cultural Affairs and Sport receives will enable it to work towards its vision of a socially inclusive, creative and active Western Cape.

Dr Ivan Meyer
Minister of Cultural Affairs and Sport
Western Cape Government

 

Media Enquiries: 

Daniel Johnson
Media Liaison Officer to Dr Ivan Meyer, Minister of Cultural Affairs and Sport
Western Cape Government
Tel: 021 483 3261
Fax: 021 483 9801
Cell: 079 9904 231
E-mail: Daniel.Johnson@westerncape.gov.za