The
following statement has been received by the Minister of Sports, Arts and
Culture on mitigation plans to minimise the impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on
the sector.
Good afternoon Fellow South Africans, and
Members of the Media
President of the Republic of South Africa,
His Excellency, MC Ramaphosa, in his address to the nation on the 15 March
2020, declared the spread of Corona Virus (Covid 19) a national disaster. This
declaration necessitated the implementation of measures to mitigate the
challenges.
Amongst the measures announced by the
President was to limit gatherings to less than one hundred people. This
necessary measure was a fatal blow to the sector, since it depends on numbers
for it to survive be it Gigs, Concerts, Sporting matches et al.
We made the point at the time and we are
reiterating now, that sporting and creative sectors are going to be the hardest
hit by these critically important measures.
Subsequent to the address by the President
to the Nation we convened sectoral meetings and a number of issues were
discussed and suggestions made on how to mitigate the impact of the pandemic.
On the sporting front for instance they
shared with us actions that they have already taken to respond positively to
the call made by the President. This includes amongst others the postponement
and cancellation of matches. In the final analysis, they further made
suggestions on how to address the challenges brought by the outbreak of
COVID-19.
The cultural and creative sector remains in
the desperate situation as the result of the declaration. They have made some suggestions
on how to deal with the situation. They have made the following suggestions:
Utilisation of 4th Industrial Revolution on
live performances with no audiences (Live Streaming).
They suggested that we engage the private
sector especially the financial services sector for the relief on such things
like House and Car mortgages, rents and other instalments.
They also wanted government to give
direction on athletes who are trapped abroad like in USA and Europe.
We engage our sister Department of Communications to avail platforms for key individuals in the
sector to send messages of hope and awareness on Corona Virus.
To ensure that the Public Broadcaster is
biased in favour of local content during this period.
This will go a long way in alleviating the
plight of artists and athletes.
In this meeting we also had the presence of
the organised formations in the sector such as National Federations in sports
and the Confederation (SASCOC).
On the side of the cultural and creative
sector we had the federation of the creatives the Creative and Cultural
Industries Federation of South Africa (CCIFSA).
We also had collecting societies like
SAMBRO, SAMPRO, IMPRA and CAPASSO who all have made commitments to pay
royalties to members on time.
We urge everyone to play a role in
addressing the difficulties faced by the sector. Let us put a shoulder to the
wheel.
All these suggestions mean we must get
resources, especially financially, to address the challenges at hand. This
means at looking at what the department can do.
Budget
Allocation
The Department has therefore reprioritized
its budget allocation from quarter one to avail over R150 million to provide
the much needed relief to practitioners in the sector.
The allocated funds will be utilized to
render various forms of support to practitioners during this period. Priority
will be given to artists and practitioners who were already booked by some of
the cancelled and postponed events funded by the department, as well as to the
legends of the industry.
For the audiovisual sector, already over 25
TV productions have been postponed, possibly to be cancelled by broadcasters,
about 15 live shows have been cancelled: the DSAC together with the Department
of Communication are engaging the broadcasters to ensure that producers should
pay the cast and crew that were due to go into production.
Partnership
with the DSAC Playhouses to create live streaming programmes
The playhouses, which are entities of the
Department of Sports, Arts and Culture will avail to artists a platform to
perform live-streaming activities which includes amongst others stand-up
comedy, poetry sessions, music, and so forth.
This will be done to keep people entertained, to showcase the work of
the creatives, and to promote local content across all art genres. The
Department will commission service providers in the digital space to curate new
programs in all disciplines to ensure that artists continue to work. The
department will share detailed plans on the process for participation.
Support
from Entities of DSAC to Practitioners
The National Film and Video Foundation
(NFVF) will offer immediate relief to practitioners in the film industry by
prioritising and making payments to beneficiaries that have submitted
milestones in the past two weeks on an urgent basis. Beneficiaries who have yet
to submit milestones over the next three months will also be paid. NFVF also intends to release a call for
Development, Post-Production, Animation and Archive by the end of this week,
which ordinarily would have only been released in August. The aim of this exercise is to ensure that
normal processes are applied to all applications including council approvals by
the 10th of June to keep the industry going.
NFVF will further reprioritise funding earmarked for the film festivals
which have been cancelled, and realising them for an early production in
September 2020.
As part of the slates programme which
benefits young emerging producers, NFVF has further identified a savings of
R4.5 million from the current fiscal, which will be used as part of the relief
programme. NFVF will provide a cash
injection of R500,000 to the nine companies currently commissioned by the
organisation. This relief will only be
contained to the slates currently commissioned by the institution, and would be
extended it to anyone else in the industry.
Key
messages by practitioners in the sector #OneMessageManyVoices
The Department further calls upon both the
public and private broadcasters to lend a hand in the relief program towards
the sector by playing more locally produced content to enable artists to earn
royalties, and to show patriotism towards their country. Part of DSAC’s
education and awareness programme is to share, messages about Covid19, but also
to communicate messages that will bring courage and hope to South African
citizens; that we are a resilient country and we can triumph in spite of this
pandemic. Through our campaign, we will be sending out a strong message, that
carries many voices. This we will attain by commissioning young and upcoming
artists, renowned artists, and our legends to curate via their respective
social media platforms.
Issued by the Ministry of Sports, Arts, and
Culture