(Debate in Parliament)
Africa Day, which is celebrated today, shines the spotlight on the arts, culture and heritage as well as on creating a better world amid the Covid-19 pandemic. But the ANC government's actions, particularly during the pandemic, have made a travesty of it.
An elect 12% received a total of R128 million, which comprises approximately 46% of the entire relief package.
Covid-19 has had a devastating impact on artists and their livelihoods. And the ANC is callously continuing to tear down those artists who can no longer fend for their families.
The presidential stimulus programme along with other forms of funding from the government has been misappropriated – through fraud and corruption, the funds were stolen from those whose survival depend on it. So, approximately 46% of the National Arts Council's relief fund was allocated to only 12% of the beneficiaries because they were in some or other way linked to those who are in charge of these funds.
Dishonesty has become part of the ANC's DNA.
The problems are more deeply rooted than the Covid-19 relief funds. One would think that one place that would be immune to this is the museum on Robben Island, but even there the ANC rot is clearly evident.
The Director-General of Sports, Arts and Culture, Mr Vusumusi Mkhize, saw first-hand, during a visit to the museum last year, how infrastructure is deteriorating while an infrastructure allowance of more than R100 million was earmarked for upgrades but had not been used by March 2020. It seems that what cannot be stolen is simply not used due to a lack of proper planning and management.
The blatant attacks on Afrikaner descent, cultural heritage and memorials serve as further proof that the government has no respect for any of South Africa's indigenous population groups.
The removal of monuments, enormous amounts of essential funds being spent on changing street and place names and the apparent contempt for the history and fate of, among others, the Afrikaner expressed through scapegoat politics make millions of South Africans feel like strangers in their own country.
The ANC government cannot claim that it has created a better world through arts, culture and heritage. It is clear for all to see that such a claim would be the pinnacle of hypocrisy.
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