Mashatile announces 28 heritage projects
2012-05-03 22:07
Cape Town - The arts and culture department will conduct 28 heritage projects this year to pay tribute to heroes of the anti-apartheid struggle, Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile announced on Thursday.
The department would spend more than R40m on initiatives in honour of former ANC president Oliver Tambo, Mashatile told Parliament in the ministry's annual budget speech.
The government would refurbish Tambo's old house in Bizana, in the Eastern Cape, would build a new road to it and would turn the Holy Cross Church in Ngquaza Hill (to which he belonged) into a heritage site.
Mashatile said the Tambo memorials alone should create more than 250 jobs, and a legacy project in honour of the first ANC president, John Langalibalele Dube, launched in Inanda in February, should employ as many.
The Steve Biko Centre in Ginsburg, also in the Eastern Cape, had to date created 609 jobs, he said.
R1bn heritage route project
"We will use heritage infrastructure development as catalysts for local economic development, job creation and nation building."
Mashatile said the department would create another 10 000 job opportunities over the next three years through its public art programme and the establishment of an art bank to procure and curate artwork in public buildings.
These projects formed part of the Mzansi Golden Economy Strategy, which was meant to contribute to the National Growth Path by stimulating local art and craft production.
The memorial projects form part of the government's R1bn heritage route project, which will be completed over the next few years.
It will include the building of museums and historic sites in both rural and urban towns, and is meant to unite South Africans and strengthen the role of arts and culture in the economy.
So far it has seen the graves of PAC leader Robert Sobukwe and activist Helen Joseph declared heritage sites; those of Beyers Naude and Rashima Moosa will follow in coming months.
- SAPA
