Minister calls for transformation in Arts and Culture
Minister, Nathi Mthethwa said government was ready to support artists in a bid to transform the arts, culture & heritage sector and therefore increase its contribution to the country’s GDP
Speaking during a government imbizo at CedarWood in Woodmead, Mthethwa said there had been a steady decline of physical products which had been key to the revenues of artists in general.
“The music industry faces a multiplicity of challenges which amongst others includes access to finance and investment, market access development, domestic and international market access support, effective and efficient Intellectual Property rights management and IP and music enterprise skills development.
“South Africa continues to import royalties higher than exporting them. Imports of creative service are $66m (2011), whereas export of services at $16m (2011),” Mthethwa said.
Mthethwa said there was a rethink currently under way, which started last year, to deal with the challenges affecting the music industry.
Mthethwa said he was engaging with artists on how to deal with the challenges affecting the music industry, to work towards economic self-reliance of the artists.
According to the department of arts and culture, issues raised during discussion between the minister and the artists, included the development of audiences by exposing people to up and coming artists in their respective localities, exposing more South Africans to music of legends and contemporary young artists who have a national footprint and re-enforcing efforts by South African artists to carry their work throughout the continent.
The discussions also focused on IP crimes which continued to impact on the industry despite many efforts to deal with the issue.
There were calls for a further need to create a platform or television programme to promote and market local talent, the need to increase and deepen local content across local broadcasting platforms and the need for skill development to produce more local content.
Mthethwa said that in the context of the transformation of the sector, it was necessary to recognise that the department consisted of arts, culture and heritage. “After all, heritage is a very significant fundamental for reconciliation, nation building and social cohesion which is the key mandate for the department.”