The following speech was delivered in Parliament today by the DA’s Shadow Deputy Minister of Arts and Culture, Dr Allen Grootboom MP, during the Budget Vote on Arts and Culture.
Honourable Chair, Honourable Members, fellow South Africans,
It must be clear from the onset that this department is tasked with nation-building, social cohesion, transforming society and uniting the country, as captured in chapter 15 of the National Development Plan (NDP). It is my duty to ensure and interrogate whether this Department is succeeding.
A shocking report recently revealed that this department allowed the cost of a new facility, being built for King Goodwill Zwelithini, to allegedly be inflated from R225 million to over R1 billion.
Unlike Nkandla, this time we do have the power to ensure that no more public money is spent without due and proper approval. That is why I have called for an urgent and immediate oversight visit by the portfolio committee to the site as the first step to ensuring this.
The report by Gobodo Forensic & Investigative Accounting found that consultants charged as much as 200% more than the usual industry rates, that millions were transferred from the Department of Arts and Culture’s budget without Treasury approval and that due and proper processes were flouted.
The money intended for the Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) program (Ingquza Hill Museum and JL Dube house) has been diverted to this project without any impact assessment and proper costing.
Even though R132 million has already been spent, the only visible results are a half-built fence and a gated area – essentially there is no value for the money already spent on the project. Adding insult to injury, the project is being built on tribal land with government money and no authorisation from the trust. This means that it will not be a heritage site at all!
Honourable Minister, I put it to you that there is no legitimate justification to continue funding this project. The Acting Director-General said that “by leaving the building unfinished, it would be an embarrassment to the government.” And so, a further R28.1 million has been pledged on this basis.
This committee must immediately go and inspect this extortionate spending.
It is very clear that this project, under the guise of strengthening and expanding a precious cultural activity, is yet another opportunity for corruption and theft of taxpayers’ money.
I challenge this committee to schedule this oversight immediately.
I quote from Acemoglu and Robinson in Why Nations Fail. When referring to the reasons for the riots in Egypt: “We are suffering from corruption, oppression and bad education. These are the things that hold us back.” Corruption and bad education are holding South Africa Back.
Honourable Minister, when the DA is voted into National Government in 2019, we will encourage and work on cultural branding to promote cultural tourism routes and grow the economy because we envision South Africa as integrated, a vision that remains enigmatic to the world. We will showcase the full diversity of the South African cultural mix.
The DA will create new cultural spaces for intercultural exchanges, bringing South Africa together culturally. As a country with a rich cultural diversity, we need to look for cultural mix rather than cultural polarisation and extend the microsocial environment.
Yet, the draft White Paper on Arts and Culture is not implementable, especially the inclusion of a central council for museums as one example.
Culture can and must drive the transformation agenda, but no funding is allocated to the performing arts mentorship programs.
Additionally, social cohesion remains the buzzword. It sounds nice but under the ANC no practical ways or programmes directed at achieving it are presented. The White Paper needs to speak to the realities of implementing a five-year plan and assessment strategies to map our collective progress in uniting the country.
At the end of the day, this department has an important job to promote an inclusive society. Yet funding is not spent on this mandate. Under the ANC this budget is used for projects that benefit the politically connected few and not the people of South Africa.
But it does not have to be this way. The DA will accelerate delivery, accelerate accountability, accelerate focused education, accelerate the fight against corruption and create an inclusive culture through freedom, fairness and opportunity.
I thank you.