Protecting Heritage For Future Generations

Women In Leadership: Deputy Minister Nocawe Mafu

By Jessie Taylor

September marks Heritage Month and is a time when South Africans celebrate the cultural wealth of our country, remembering the history and culture of the many cultures that make up our nation. Heritage Month will be commemorated under the theme of ‘Celebrating our cultural diversity in a democratic South Africa’ this year and will focus on celebrating South Africa’s rich and diverse cultural heritage.'

Treasuring Indigenous Knowledge

Protecting this heritage falls to the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture, which is responsible for safeguarding our living heritage, or intangible cultural heritage, under the leadership of Deputy Minister Nocawe Mafu. Deputy Minister Mafu took up the position of Deputy Minister of Sports and Recreation, Arts and Culture on 30 May 2019. She had previously served as Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements and a member of the National Assembly.

Living heritage – including cultural tradition, oral history, ritual, and indigenous knowledge systems – is an essential source of identity. It is vital in promoting cultural diversity, social cohesion, reconciliation, peace and economic development. Every community has living human treasures who possess a high degree of knowledge, skills and history pertaining to different aspects of diverse living heritage. During her most recent budget vote speech, Deputy Minister Mafu announced that five books on living human treasures are being published. “These five books recognise the lives and work of our elders in all elements of intangible cultural heritage. These living human treasures have excelled in various fields of our indigenous knowledge,” she said. The living treasures are Dr. Thomas Chauke, Oom Petrus Vaalbooi, Mr Themba Magaisa, Ms Grace Masuku and Vho Esther Sinyengwe.

The programme aims to celebrate carriers of indigenous knowledge systems. Among some of the former living treasures honoured in this way are artist Dr Esther Mahlangu; poet Don Mattera; music icons Madosini Latozi Mpahleni, Abigail Kubeka, Letta Mbulu, and Caiphus Semenya; photojournalist Peter Magubane; and anti-linguicide activist Ouma Katrina Esau.

Investing In Heritage

However, this is not the only area in which the Department is investing in South Africa’s heritage, Deputy Minister Mafu said. In the area of heritage preservation and promotion, the Department made great strides by completing the restoration of the Winnie Madikizela Mandela House in the Free State and installing an exhibition in a town now known as Winnie Mandela.

As part of the second phase, a service provider was appointed to preserve and protect a clinic bombed in the 80s by the apartheid government. This site will become part of the interpretation space that will narrate the life and experience of Mama Winnie in the town, which was formerly named Brandfort. The Clinic will be completed in this financial year, with R5 million allocated towards the project.

The Department is also designing and installing exhibitions in Bisho Massacre site, Waaihoek Wesleyan Church and Victor Verster Nelson Mandela Prison House. The Department has set aside an amount of R6 million for the design and installation process of the three sites.

As part of preserving South Africa’s heritage, a focus has been placed on preserving documented histories at the National Archives through digitisation. Among the digitised archival records are 106 773 general archival paper records and photographs, 1721 Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) audio tapes and 463 Treason Trial Dictabelts – something Deputy Minister Mafu said was “phenomenal work”.

“The overachievement in the digitisation space was made possible by the employment of Presidential Employment Stimulus Programme (PESP) interns, Departmental interns, as well as partnerships with other institutions. These strategic interventions helped to shoulder the human resource burden, which the Department would have been unable to bear on its own,” said Deputy Minister Mafu.

In creating a more inclusive heritage for all South Africans, the Department is also working towards transforming South Africa’s naming landscape. Among some of the more recent name changes to come into effect are Fort Beaufort to KwaMaqoma and Cradock to Enxuba in the Eastern Cape. In KwaZulu Natal, Pomeroy was changed to Solomon Linda. “We need to create more awareness within our constituencies so that more colonial and apartheid names are changed in order to reflect the languages and cultural heritage of the majority of the people of South Africa,” said Deputy Minister Mafu.

The Department is also working with the Gauteng government around the planned memorialisation projects of three women struggle icons: Mama Margaret Gazo, Mama Francis Baard and Mama Charlotte Maxeke.

Source: Department of Sports, Arts and Culture | News24 | SA Government