The Sunday News
Raisedon Baya
MINISTER of Finance Mthuli Ncube announced the 2019 budget proposals this past week. The budget received mixed reactions from different sectors. Even within the arts there were different reactions. The minister allocated about $53 million dollars to the Ministry of Youth, Sports, Arts and Recreation. Most artistes thought $53 million won’t make a difference.
Others said the bulk of the money would go to Sports and Youths.
I was personally happy with three things. For the first time Arts and Culture were mentioned in a national budget. The minister talked about “planned community arts programmes centred around National Arts and Culture festivals and exhibitions”. He also talked about the establishment of an Arts Development Fund to help grow the creative sector.” I don’t know how many years we have been crying for Government support of the arts that went beyond the payment of salaries within the ministry and parastatals.
I was even happier to see a tweet by the Sports and Arts minister herself saying now that the budget has been announced she awaits suggestions and advice from various stakeholders on how to make the allocated budget work for her ministry. That’s what we want to hear, someone prepared to listen and share. No more “I know it all” attitudes.
True, $53 million is not much. Remember the ministry is a four-in-one ministry. There is a need to prioritise and allocate the resources to different sectors before they are spent. In the past sports ran away with the bigger chunk of the meat. So my first advice to the minister is to be fair and balance the resources. Make everyone who is under your ministry feel they belong and the ministry have their interests at heart. As an artiste and festival organiser I believe supporting festivals is a great idea.
Festivals and exhibitions can create employment for artistes. They can create audiences and a market for the arts. Festivals can drive tourism too. I know when Government talks about festivals it is talking about creating festivals, starting at districts levels up to national levels. All good. But for 2019 I would suggest Government starts by supporting existing festivals and initiatives. I believe every province in this country has a festival, others have more than one.
In some provinces the festivals died because of lack of support and funding. I suggest the ministry starts there, by supporting existing festivals, and resuscitating those that have fallen by the wayside. The ministry can also partner with the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and grow the idea of schools arts and culture festivals. The idea is great but currently has no financial support. A partnership could be a win-win situation.
I like the idea of an Arts Development Fund. The fund must be national and bigger than the “Culture Fund” of yesteryear. The Culture Fund was distributing over $500 000 a year. The sector needs a consistent and transparent development fund hopefully run by an independent board that will not be influenced by government big wigs. The fund must be transparent and benefit everyone who is genuinely into the arts.
We do not want another “presidential scholarship type of a fund” that used to support children of the privileged and those connected instead of the intended beneficiaries. After our excitement about the announcement the sector will obviously want to know when the fund comes into effect, where the money for the fund will come from, how much will the initial fund be and who will be running it.
Now we wait to see what Sports and Arts Minister Kirsty Coventry does with the allocated budget. The Minister of Finance has given her enough rope to pull us out of the doldrums the sector has been in for quite a long time.
