Cultural Affairs and Sport

1. Details regarding the Department’s mandates are presented in the Department’s Annual Performance Plans (APPs) (see Part A: Section 1 of the APP 2023-24).

In summary, the core mandates relate to arts, culture, language, museums, heritage, libraries, archives, sport, and recreation, based on the related sections of the Constitution, the Constitution of the Western Cape, and various other national and provincial legislation including the National Archives and Records Service of South Africa Act, 1996; National Heritage Resources Act, 1999; Pan South African Language Board Act, 1995; National Sport and Recreation Act, 1998, Western Cape Cultural Commissions and Cultural Councils Act, 1998; the Provincial Library Service Ordinance, 1981; and the Western Cape Museums Ordinance Amendment Act, 2021.

2. All annual targets are presented in the Department’s Annual Performance Plan. All indicators relate to the Department’s mandates.
3. Details regarding the Department’s performance against its performance targets are presented in its Annual Reports for the relevant financial years. The Department’s yearly performance can be summarised as follows (included in the AO statement in each Annual Report):

• 2019-20: The Department achieved of 101 of its 105 Performance indicators (73 of 74 Programme Performance Indicators and 28 of 31 Conditional Grant indicators).
• 2020-21: The Department achieved 82 of 119 Performance Indicators (66 of 89 Programme Performance Indicators and 16 of 30 Conditional Grant indicators).
• 2021-22: The Department achieved 110 of 117 Performance indicators (84 of 88 Programme Performance Indicators + 26 of 29 Conditional Grant indicators).
• 2022-23: The Department achieved 108 of 115 Performance indicators (80 of 86 Programme Performance Indicators + 28 of 29 Conditional Grant indicators).

2023-24 Performance to date:  33 targets achieved to date, 2 partial achievements (≥50%), and 3 under-achievements (<50%), towards a total of 38 Q1 targets. Reporting for the second quarter will take place in October 2023. 

4. A detailed breakdown of each performance target per programme is presented in the Annual Performance Plan 2023-24.
5. There were no real challenges apart from Covid-19 which had a significant impact on the Department’s frontline services as many were dependent on community participation to achieve such targets.

Excluding the effects of Covid-19 where all services were affected, the Department experienced some challenges with indicators that is beyond the control of the Department where it is required to  rely on external delivery partners, e.g., the SITA SLIMS system affected performance for the number of library users, and governance matters that affected compliance of organisations in the sector that the Department supports or might have supported.

6. During the term under review, underperformance was minimal for the Department.  Areas of underperformance are addressed on a case-by-case basis where indicators were not achieved. Progress in achieving targets is measured and monitored quarterly and reported on which aims to improve performance and/or prevent underperformance. 

Furthermore, Annual Reports include a section for “strategy to overcome areas of under-performance” for each Programme. For example, in the 2022-23 Annual Report, strategies to overcome underperformance included working with WCED, Ce-I and external partners to upgrade the Edu-collaborate site to make it more user-friendly in order to gain traction with NGOs so that the indicator for “number of schools with ASPs” would not be underachieved again in the following year.  Another included increasing efforts to assist sport federations to meet the requirements for support.