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Know your Minister: Arts and Culture

July is celebrated as Moral Regeneration Month. This is the birthday month of Nelson Mandela who inspired the formation of the Moral Regeneration Movement. It is also the month in which the Charter of Positive Values was adopted. The Department of Arts and Culture is responsible for matters relating to moral regeneration.

Know your Minister

Minister of Arts and Culture, Paul Mashatile was born on 21 October 1961.

Alcohol and substance abuse contributes towards many ills such as crime, gangsterism, domestic violence and other social problems, said Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini.

We therefore believe that the magnitude of this problem requires collective national action across all spheres to deal with it. This sense of unity must be characterised by a coordinated and integrated approach that drives us towards a drug-free society.”

Youth matters

As part of its contribution to job creation, the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) launched a programme to address the shortage of artisan skills particularly among youth. Recently, 100 young people who successfully completed the Accelerated Artisans and Skills Training Programme, were awarded certificates.

Youth matters

Unemployment, illiteracy, lack of skills, poverty and lack of access to water and electricity are just some of the realities facing young rural people today. But there is hope in the form of the National Rural Youth Service Corps (NARYSEC). This is a skills development programme aimed at rural youth, which is expected to create 10 000 jobs.

Winning letter - Respect your job

Communal farmers in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands are set to benefit from supplying chicory to a multi-national coffee maker. The chicory supply project in Weenen outside Estcourt started in 2008. The Swiss multi-national company, Nestlé, started it to improve the production of local chicory to supply its coffee-making plant in nearby Estcourt.

As part of government’s long-term planning for future projects, South Africa’s next census will take place in October 2011. A census is a survey that counts all the members of a population and gets information about them. In South Africa, a census is taken every 10 years.

The awareness campaign for Census 2011 was launched in October this year to start preparing people for National Census Day on 10 October 2011.

As part of government's commitment to stop criminals from using South Africa's exit and entry points, a group of 350 former National Defence Force (SANDF) members have recently received intensive training in Cuba.

The programme, introduced by the Department of Home Affairs, trained officers to provide security at national key points including land, air and sea ports of entry, as well as at major airports.

South Africa is well-known for its excellent wines, which are mostly produced in the Western Cape. In future, however, when you enjoy a glass of wine with your meal, it could be produced from grapes grown in KwaZulu-Natal. A group of rural women in the province are blazing a trail in wine-making.