Cultural and creative industry criticises minister’s remarks

The Cultural and Creative Industry Federation of South Africa (CCIFSA) in Ugu has backed the KwaZulu-Natal CCIFSA in labelling International Relations and Cooperation Minister, Dr Naledi Pandor’s remarks as inappropriate, irrelevant, and insulting.

In the recent social media video which went viral, the minister was heard saying: “We must ensure that we have greater skills development on the continent in critical skills areas, I don’t think that we want more arts trainers, sorry to the arts people, but I think science is very important, technology and engineering because those are skills we desperately need as well as in the finance and economics sectors, we need highly trained people, in information and technology.”

CCIFSA KZN secretary general, Howard Msomi said they find Pandor’s comments insulting with intentions to perpetuate negative stereotypes of the arts and demoralise practitioners and professionals in the field of humanities.

Msomi said the former minister of education knows better that the arts sector has taken a harsh assault by various socio, economic and political conditions in our country, saying that despite the harshest realities that practitioners and entrepreneurs in the cultural and creative industries meet, most of them keep the nation’s heartbeat.

“The minister’s utterances are shutting down the aspiration of many artists in the electronic and film industry, performance sector, cultural and heritage sector, art skills development and training sector as well as design, craft and visual arts sector. It baffles us that the minister is wearing a designer dress by a fashion designer, using a microphone and sound controlled by a sound engineer, with a background by a graphic designer, and being filmed by a videographer and reading a statement by a writer. Then she turns around to say these skills are not critical enough. We, CCIFSA KZN demand a public apology from the minister to the entire arts and humanities fraternity, and to retract her statement and reorganise her thoughts on the importance and value of the arts,” said Msomi.

He added that the apology will ignite and inspire all arts people who are going through a lot already in this unfunded mandate, who are in universities and in the creative business.

He added that they want to remind the minister that the arts are their identity and distinctiveness.
Meanwhile, Pandor’s department said it has noted the issue by the CCIFSA, calling on the minister to apologise for appearing to undermine the arts.

“Minister Pandor apologises for any offence caused by her comments to the members of the arts community,” read the statement by Pandor’s department.

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