#IN DEFENSE OF MZANSI ARTS & CULTURE

The South African Arts & Culture Youth Forum (SAACYF) invites the South African Creative Practitioners, Activists; members of the public to safe guard and defend the South African Cultural and Creative Sector.

o The South African Creative Sector lacks development and still embraces the apartheid Arts and Culture policies which makes Creative Practitioners poorer, undermines the culture and heritage of South Africa.

o The Department of Arts and Culture has failed for years to create meaningful jobs in the creative sector.

o Creative Practitioners are not treated as employees.

o Creative Practitioners do not have medical aids.

oCreative Practitioners’ jobs are not protected under the South African Labour Laws Act

oWhat is freedom, without economic freedom?

oHow can we be creative and poor at the same time?

o The Majority of South African Creative Practitioners dies poor. We are tired of donations when we die, we deserve that respect & dignity other citizens get.

o The Department of Arts & Culture under Minister Nathi Mthetwa has failed both the Creative Practitioners and the South African public.

o The offices of the National Film and Video Foundation are based in Houghton urban areas which exclude the emerging Filmmakers from rural areas to access them.

o Arts & Culture was only mentioned in four paragraphs during President Jacob Zuma State of the Nation Address. What does that mean to you?

o The President described entertainment budget as a wasteful expenditure that should be removed from all official government events across the country.

o The Creative Practitioners Federation called CCIFSA the President of the Republic spoke about during his state of the nation address is dysfunctional and ever since it was established it has never run any effective program to better the lives of SA Creative Practitioners.

oCCIFSA has no policy documents or program of action

o CCIFSA executive committee must be disbanded because is not accountable to the Creative Practitioners of this country.

o Arts and Culture was not mention anywhere in Minister Pravin Gordhan 2016 budget speech.

o This shows lack of respect of the creative sector, Creative Practitioners, and their creative potential by the SA Government.

o The South African creative sector is still in the hands of Western Imperialists who control the creative economy that only exists in big urban areas.

o The same imperialists control the South African radios, televisions, and print media to brainwash our people with western imperialistic agenda. We say no to cultural imperialism in our land.

o All commercial broadcasters must also implement a radical policy that will prioritize the local South African Content on both radio and television.

o This is our country and we cannot continue to live like beggars in our own Land. We want 70% percent local content on all commercial private broadcasting radio and TV channels.

o Billions of royalties are going to overseas every time while South African creative practitioners are poor and have no stable jobs.

o Minister Nathi Mthetwa always does his seminars and meeting gatherings in Sandton urban areas as a way to exclude the poor Creative Practitioners

o The Minister also created the Living Legend Legacy project as a way to benefit his celebrity Creative Practitioners’ friends while other legends in various township and rural areas are excluded.

o The Living legend Legacy Project has only done less than 10 master classes and all where done in Gauteng urban areas.

o The Living Legend Legacy Project was given more than 5 million rands from September 2015 to March 2016 to conduct Master Classes.

o MTN Joyous Celebration was funded to record their next project while many young & emerging Creative Practitioners are not supported in their projects.

o The Department of Arts and Culture, National Film and Video Foundation, and National Arts Council prioritizes funding established Creative Practitioners and their companies while many emerging Creative Practitioners proposal are sidelined.

o The agencies must also have offices in other provinces as per their mandate.

o There is lack of Arts and Culture Infrastructure in rural areas; rural settlements have been undermined for a long time.

o The Agencies of the Department of Arts and Culture such as NFVF, NAC and others only have offices in Gauteng with no presence in rural remote areas.

o The Department and its agencies funding cycles are too long, Creative Practitioners are left to suffer and go hungry with no guarantees of funding.

o Why should Creative Practitioners wait for three to four month to get funding while the same officials in charge of the funding get paid every month?

o The Minister is not accessible to poor Creative Practitioners and this goes to all the CEO's of his agencies.

o Visual Creative Practitioners fails to find Arts related jobs after graduating from their Colleges and Universities.

o The Department of Arts and Culture National, and provincial does not employ qualified Creative Practitioners.

o The Department must employ Creative Practitioners who have various Arts related skills in the Department.

We are urging you to sign this petition as a way to say No to non-development of the South African creative sector and neglecting of South African Creative Practitioners.

2016 is the year of actions and we should make sure that this petition reach the whole country as we fight a very stubborn system done to undermine South African Creative Practitioners, our culture and heritage.

We say No to western agenda in our shores, United we stand and divided we fall.

If you agree with us - whoever you are, whatever you do, wherever you live - we hope you'll join us by adding your name to this call for radical change of the South African creative sector and help us spread the word

Tsoga Creative Practitioners Tsoga

#InDefenseofMzansiArts&Culture.

Issued by: South African Arts and Culture Youth Forum

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Email: Saacyf@gmail.com