
16/07/2025
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THE NEVER EVER AVAILABLE; MEC OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ARTS, CULTURE, SPORTS AND RECREATION (NW) FOR THE CULTURAL AND CREATIVE INDUSTRY,
What should the industry truly expect from the upcoming MEC’s 2025 Budget Speech — when what we need is not ceremonial words, but a concrete, actionable blueprint to reposition the province as a continental creative hub?
When the curtains rise for the MEC of the Department of Arts, Culture, Sports and Recreation to deliver the 2025 budget speech, the cultural and creative industry of the North West will once again sit in anxious anticipation — not out of hope, but from the painful weight of history.
A history defined by closed departmental service points in the districts, a dysfunctional and sidelined North West Arts Council, a faded Mmabana that once carried the promise of nurturing provincial talent, and funding mechanisms that fail to compete in a province whose very soil holds a rich and competitive creative economy.
It begs the question:
What will we get this time? Will it be another staged speech full of generic promises, or will it finally be an honest commitment, backed by an actionable, measurable, and transformative budget blueprint designed to move us from preservation to real economic participation, technological innovation, and continental relevance?
Beyond Survival: The Urgent Need to Reposition the Province
We are five years away from 2030 — the finish line of the intended National Development Plan.
Yet, here we stand, still begging for the basics:
Operational district offices, functional councils, equitable funding streams, and a voice in shaping policies that determine our creative destiny.
The truth is stark:
The North West has the potential to become a continental creative hub, but only if the budget explicitly funds:
Digital innovation and creative tech incubation.
Export-driven creative enterprises.
Strategic cultural tourism linking our heritage assets with global audiences.
Community-based creative education, so culture is lived, not just performed.
Anything less than this is merely another survival budget — not a transformation budget.
Our Assets Are Dying — And So Is Trust
We cannot remain passive as key institutions like the North West Arts Council and Mmabana spiral into irrelevance.
These are institutions that qualify for national budget allocations under the Cultural Institutions Act, yet in the North West, they stand as symbols of bureaucratic neglect.
Where is the budget to:
Rebuild them into modern centres of excellence?
Digitise their archives and creative outputs for local and global access?
Professionalise management to compete with best-in-class national institutions?
It is no longer enough to preserve heritage; it is time to monetise, digitise, and globalise it.
The Cost of Divide-and-Rule
We see it, MEC: the old playbook of dividing the sector into small, desperate camps to dilute collective demands.
This political tactic buys time but destroys the ecosystem.
A creative industry cannot flourish under manipulation — it needs informed policy and decisive leadership.
And let’s be brutally clear:
Lack of decisive, informed leadership is NOT the industry’s weakness; it is the department’s.
Uniformed policy decisions driven by political loyalty, not expertise, deepen crisis, not solve it.
The 2025 Budget Speech: What MUST It Deliver
For the MEC to move from ceremonial irrelevance to meaningful leadership, the industry must see a clear, actionable budget blueprint, explicitly funding:
1. District-based creative hubs and service points — fully resourced, staffed, and accountable.
2. Revival and professionalisation of the North West Arts Council and Mmabana — with transparent governance tied to national frameworks.
3. Competitive funding instruments — for SMMEs, festivals, digital content creators, and touring artists.
4. A provincial creative economy master plan — with annual KPIs and industry co-designed targets.
5. Digitalisation strategy — to export North West creativity and heritage to Africa and the world.
6. Skills, training and incubation pipelines — preparing the next generation not for local survival, but global competition.
If the budget cannot deliver these pillars, then don’t call us. Don’t host industry forums, breakfasts, or staged consultative sessions.
The creative industry’s plight is singular, and it is non-negotiable: Real budget. Real solutions. Real transformation.
Enough of Symbolism: Time for Substance
The MEC must understand: ceremonial speeches that recycle language of “preserving heritage” are obsolete.
We are an industry demanding to become an economic engine:
Generating jobs and income streams investment for the creatives.
Strengthening social cohesion through participation, not patronage.
Embracing technological disruption to reach new markets.
Competing globally, not just performing locally.
In Conclusion:
To the MEC: if your 2025 budget speech will once again ignore:
The re opening and accessibility of closed disfunctional service points offices the districts to serve the artists.
The dysfunctional North West Arts Council, renovation and be reppealed from Mmabana to stand alone with its Board And CEO.
The irrelevancy of Mmabana, re design approach of community arts centres, district creative hubs and the provincial theatre ( North West Play House)
And the absence of competitive funding streams, repealing PACC from Mmabana to stand alone as a funding body
Development programs, productions project events markets and festival benefical to the creatives ( Mahika Mahikeng, Calabash, National Arts Festival )
Then please, don’t waste the industry’s time.
We do not ask for the impossible. We ask for leadership, informed policy, and an actionable budget to unlock the North West’s Creative Power for the next five years and beyond.
The sun is setting on ceremonial arts leadership. Either you rise to meet this moment — or step aside so the industry can claim the dawn itself.
Article By; Thapelo Professor Ngaka Molelotuka Mokhutshoane
Published By; Rtflivemagazine - where every story is a masterpiece awaiting to be discovered