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In line with the National Development Plan’s 2030 vision, our intention as a Department is to build a cohesive society in which everyone has access to sport, arts and culture resources, facilities and opportunities.

Whilst COVID-19 has robbed our industry of gaining fruitful employment, this challenge has further inspired us to ensure that our mandate becomes even more pronounced.

101 days into lockdown in South Africa, the relief fund process has provided much needed relief and has enabled us to empower over two thousand practitioners from the creative industry.

We remain resolute in improving the quality of the lives of South Africans, in spite of the huge socio-economic impediments brought on by the restrictions of COVID-19. We know that as a Department, ours is to save the lives of our sector’s practitioners so that they can utilise their skills to better their lives and those of our communities.

In a recent letter sent by a beneficiary to the Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture, gratitude for what the relief fund has enabled the beneficiary to do brought to mind the real reason behind instituting this relief fund process in the first place.

Numerous artists and athletes have expressed gratitude for the relief that they have received from the Department. One such beneficiary, Ms Loyiso Lindani, said of the funds she received from the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture: “I signed the purchase order for my books and used the relief funds to pay for expenses and I am now selling copies. The book I published, titled How HIV saved my life, is listed on the South African Publisher’s Network, the funds assisted in paying that off. The book is also listed with the National Library of South Africa, where we obtained its ISBN. I want to thank the DSAC.”

Firstly - EMPATHY as a value system of operating with the sector is an intent, which will become manifested even more as we develop our strategy of “Beyond COVID-19 Sector Operations Framework”. Therefore, we note concerns raised by the sector that our process of implementing the Relief Fund took longer than expected. We are empathetic to the impact of our lengthy processes.

Laborious as this exercise was to our sector, the principles of empathy, responsiveness and agility became the cornerstone of our measurement framework of engaging the sector as we move forward.

Looking at the next step of the process, once again we will be engaging with the sector to further institutionalise this Operations Framework whilst actively exploring the possibility of a second application process, as we have indicated from the start of this journey. For ease of reference, the updated list of beneficiaries and Digital applications (service providers) can be found on our official website (published 6 July 2020). Furthermore, we will continue to update the nation on developments pertaining to the COVID-19 Relief Fund, as we have consistently done along the way.

Issued by Government Communications (GCIS) on behalf of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture