DURBAN - Sport, Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa says it is not up to him to decide when soccer fans will return to stadiums.
Speaking in Durban on Monday during a visit to the Phansi Museum, he said it was the National Coronavirus Command Council that had the power to make decisions on such matters.
Mthethwa, who was at the museum to announce funding for the digitisation of 20 000 artworks, was pressed by journalists to say when sport and music events would return to normal.
The national council was set to meet next week, and would make announcements in relation to Covid-19 at that time, he said.
On the funding for digitisation, Mthethwa said the project would preserve jobs and help start growing the economy, which has been ravaged since the outbreak of Covid-19 two years ago. He said the museum was the recipient of a Presidential Employment Stimulus package, and it had already received R2 million for the Phansi Goes Phezulu digitisation project.
Among the objectives of the project are 4 000 digitised objects, 20 extensive online exhibitions, five extensive video master classes with experts, collaboration with selected schools to produce educational content for pupils, and collaboration with tertiary cultural programmes.
The department will produce an easily accessible catalogue, as well as metadata and research materials for online consumption, which would help to create a fully integrated digital museum.
The minister said funding from the stimulus package has also been allocated for the creation of 24 new contract positions for youth, retention of seven staff members, and the purchase of digitising equipment and a library cataloguing system.
“Of the employment opportunities created, the museum has employed six women and seven men between the ages of 22 and 32. These are young graduate professionals, highly skilled individuals, curators, film editors, photographers, film and documentary makers, library and information studies graduates, who have displayed immense hard work and dedication,” he said.
The museum is situated in the suburb of Glenwood and houses beadwork, clay pots, wooden sculptures and traditional cloth work. Mthethwa said it was not only a national collection, but one for the entire continent.
Mthethwa said he was disappointed to hear about the vandalising of the tombstones of apartheid-era journalist Nathaniel Nakasa and the late Bafana Bafana captain Senzo Meyiwa at the Heroes Acre cemetery in Chesterville. The graves were reportedly vandalised last week.
He said the protection of the cemetery was the responsibility of the eThekwini Municipality.
Daily News