According to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act 108 of 1996, everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes freedom of artistic creativity and academic freedom and freedom of scientific research. Persons belonging to a cultural, religious or linguistic community may not be denied the right to enjoy their culture, and to form, join and maintain cultural associations and other organs of civil society.

South Africa's Cultural Industries: our diverse and dynamic arts and culture heritage is one of our richest and most important resources, with the capacity to generate significant economic and social benefits for the nation. Equally important is the potential for a vibrant and dynamic arts and culture sector to contribute significantly to the economy of the country.

In the White Paper on Arts, Culture and Heritage, the national Department of Arts and Culture is committed to making an impact on economic growth, development and tourism through targeting the development of cultural industries which are organised around the production and consumption of culture and related services, and investing in an infrastructure for arts, culture and heritage education.

Global economy changed and is based on information and a country’s competitive advantage based on its human capital, creativity, innovation and knowledge. DAC has identified significant potential for growth and development in the SA economy and created a lead project called Cultural Industries Growth Strategy (CIGS). The CIGS has 4 central premises at its core:

• The cultural industries can and do create employment and wealth
• These industries often produce significant returns on investment
• The cultural industries have the potential to drive our new economy by generating innovative and creative human capital
• Developing these sectors requires a collaborative approach between the public and private sectors.

Also refer to:

• The South African Music Industry Report
• The South African Publishing Industry Report
• The South African Film and Television Industry Report
• The South African Craft Industry Report

President Thabo Mbeki launched the The Accelerated and Shared Growth – South Africa (ASGISA) in July 2005. Its primary goal is to halve unemployment and poverty by 2014 by ensuring the significant participation of women and youth in cultural industries. Interventions to accelerate growth in a shared manner must surgically target weaknesses unique to our economy and government:

• Targeting economic sectors with good growth potential
• Developing skills and harnessing current skills
• Building up small businesses to bridge the gap between the formal and informal economies
• Creating a macroeconomic environment more conducive to economic growth.

The national Department of Arts and Culture contributed to the government’s Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy through a number of initiatives intended to enhance the economic and social benefits of arts and culture. The Cultural Industries Growth Strategy (CIGS) is one such initiative and has concentrated on developing strategies for the growth and development of the cultural industries, in particular to realise the potential to create an export market and employment. The strategy for realising the potential of the Cultural Industries is captures in the Creative South Africa Report dated 1998.

Create SA , the Media Advertising, Publishing, Printing and Packaging Sector Education and Training Authority's (MAPPP SETA) creative industries skills development programme, has been launched in partnership with the Department of Arts and Culture with funding from the Department of Labour's national skills fund. It was formed to develop a new approach to education and skills training for those involved in a wide range of creative industries including visual arts and craft; design; music; the performing arts; heritage; film, video and multimedia production; technical production services for events and arts and culture management.

The Final Draft Sector Skills Plan 2005-2009 of MAPPP SETA consists of an extensive formal research that represents a profile from industrial outputs to drivers of change and seeks to align the demand to the supply of skills. Almost 40% of all companies under the ambit of the MAPPP-SETA are in Gauteng, Western Cape (28%) and KwaZulu Natal (14%). The main purpose of Create SA is to invest in the sector's most critical resource, people. While it is hoped that some learners will find jobs at the end of their training, the aim of the organisation is also to maximise the learners' ability to be self-sufficient and give them the skills needed to create sustainable work for them.

The purpose of the Skills Development Act, Act 97 of 1998, is

• to develop the skills of the SA workforce
• to increase the levels of investment in education and training in the labour market and to improve the return on that investment
• to encourage employers and workers to participate in learnership and other training programmes
• to improve the employment prospects of persons previously disadvantaged by unfair discrimination and to redress those disadvantages through training and education
• to ensure the quality of education and training in and for the workplace
• to assist work-seekers to find work and retrenched workers to re-enter the labour market and employers to find qualified employees, and
• to provide and regulate employment services.

The Skills Development Levies Act, Act of 1999, Act 9 of 1999 deals with levy financing.

World wide the cultural industries continue to grow steadily apace. Their international dimension gives them a determining role for the future in terms of freedom of expression, cultural diversity and economic development. Although the globalisation of exchange and new technologies opens up exciting new prospects, it also creates new types of inequality. The world map of cultural industries reveals a yawning gap between North and South. Strengthening local capacities and facilitating access to global markets at national levels by way of new partnerships, know-how, control of piracy and increased international solidarity of every kind can only counteract this.

The First Paper of the Western Cape Department of Economic Planning and Tourism on Cultural Industries, Arts, Culture and Creative Arts defines cultural industries as follows: “those areas of social and economic activity that are premised on or closely allied with individual or collective intellectual or artistic creativity, innovation and originality and/or the preservation, teaching and celebration of cultural heritage including language and which have the capacity to provide work and generate income for the original creators as well as for others involved in education and training, production, distribution, documentation and support for creative products or cultural experiences, whether in a non-for-profit capacity or for commercial gain.”

The Scope of the Craft Industry in the Western Cape (a paper prepared by Kaiser Associates Economic Development Practice) provides accurate assessment of the profile of this industry and expected future trends as part of the wider Western Cape Micro Economic Development Strategy process

It is essential to effectively utilise indigenous knowledge that represents a major dimension of the continent’s culture and to share this knowledge for the benefit of humankind. The programme of action of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is a holistic, comprehensive and integrated sustainable development initiative for the revival of Africa. NEPAD gives special attention to the nurturing of indigenous knowledge and tradition-based innovations and creations resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary or artistic fields.

The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions that was adopted by UNESCO during 2005 confirm the strengthening of cultural industries in developing countries and capacity-building through exchange of information, experience and expertise, as well as the training of human resources in the public and private sector.

The youth friendly version "ALL DIFFERENT, ALL UNIQUE" of the UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity of 2001 includes cultural industries in articles 8-10:

• cultures should be recognised as being valuable and unique – thus cultural goods and services must be treated with respect
• a supportive environment must be in place, enabling the creation and distribution of diverse cultural goods and services
• cooperation in the international community is necessary to support the creation and distribution of cultural goods and services particularly of the developing world.