There is also growing interest and participation from artists in other African countries and from the rest of the world.

The Klein Karoo Nasionale Kunstefees is a vibrant festival for the performing arts, presented mainly, but not exclusively, in Afrikaans. It is held annually in Oudtshoorn, Western Cape, at the end of March. Disciplines include drama, cabaret, and contemporary and classical music.

The Arts Alive International Festival, Johannesburg's annual festival of music, dance, theatre and performance-poetry, was hosted by the city for the 12th time in September 2003. Heritage reclamation festivals are also emerging at local level in communities destroyed by apartheid such as Sophiatown and Vrededorp (Fietas) in Johannesburg. Other festivals that attract visitors at both national and international level are Oppikoppi, Calabash, Aardklop, The One City Festival, the Awesome Africa Music Festival in Durban, and Macufe in Bloemfontein. The Department of Arts and Culture and the NAC support numerous festivals throughout South Africa, including the North Sea Jazz Festival, Port St Johns Festival, Morgan's Bay Festival and the Grahamstown National Arts Festival. The Department of Arts and Culture and the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism have established a forum of festival directors to maximise tourism opportunities.

The well-known Market Theatre in Johannesburg kept South African theatre alive through the apartheid years. The Market Theatre's reputation is based on its local content productions. A growing number of directors are doing original South African works. A new trend is the establishment of smaller theatres which is making this artform more accessible to South Africans from all walks of life.

Early in 2003, two South Africans, dance choreographer Robyn Orlin and actor Craig Urbani, were nominated for the highly prestigious Laurence Olivier Awards.

Orlin was nominated in the category Outstanding Achievement in Dance and Urbani was nominated in the category Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical or Entertainment.

The Department of Arts and Culture secured funds from the Poverty-Alleviation Fund for Job Creation in the Arts and Culture Industry. Music in Public Places is one of the strategies for young artists' development and the promotion of South African music. The project focuses on live performances and selling South African music in public places such as airports and stations. The project targets emerging artists, who are given the opportunity to perform and sell their products. The Department has also funded the South African Music Directory. The North Sea Jazz Festival secured South Africa's position on the international jazz circuit when it took place for the first time on African soil in March 2001. The North Sea Jazz Festival ­ Cape Town has a unique programming formulary. With a 50/50 talent split between Africa and the rest of the world, the South African Festival allows for local musicians to take their rightful place alongside international artists.

The ninth South African Music Awards were presented on 5 April 2003 at Sun City in the North West. Mzekezeke won awards for Artist of the Year and Song of the Year. Other winners included:

Contemporary work ranges from normal preconceptions of movement and performance art or performance theatre to the completely unconventional.

Added to this is the African experience, which includes traditional dance inspired by wedding ceremonies, battles, rituals and the trifles of everyday life.

An informal but highly versatile performance venue in Johannesburg, The Dance Factory, provides a permanent platform for all kinds of dance and movement groups.

The Wits Theatre (attached to the University of the Witwatersrand) is also a popular dance venue. It is home to the annual First National Bank Dance Umbrella, which usually takes place over three weeks from the end of February. It is complemented by workshops and performances by visiting international groups. The festival provides a platform for the full spectrum of southern African contem-porary dance.

Only new and indigenous choreography is accepted in the Dance Umbrella and no previous experience is required. The concept has also been launched in Cape Town, Bloemfontein, Durban and Grahamstown.

Started in 1934 as the University of Cape Town Ballet Company, the Cape Town City Ballet is the oldest ballet company in the country. Ninety-nine per cent of the dancers employed by the company are local artists.

The oldest painted stones (6 400 years) were recovered at Boomplaas Cave in the Cango Valley near Oudtshoorn. Three painted stones were also found at the Klasies River Caves, which yielded the second-oldest stone, dating back 3 900 years. The Department of Arts and Culture is supporting a number of related projects, including a rock heritage project in Clanwilliam in the Western Cape.

The development of South Africa's crafts industry is an ongoing priority for government through the Department of Arts and Culture. There are numerous role-players involved in various initiatives to develop this sector.

The National Crafts Development Initiative, spearheaded by the NAC and supported by several national bodies, is one such example, providing a platform for growing the local market by staging craft fairs at various levels.

The work of various bodies and institutions can be categorised into areas such as training, marketing, information provision, supply of raw material, co-ordination, and funding or financing.

The Department, in partnership with other government departments and role-players, aims to address the co-ordination of the sector, develop a national strategy for craft financing, marketing and development, and find a suitable vehicle to develop and grow exports of South African craft products.

The biggest intervention from government and other craft development agencies is with regard to training. It covers areas such as  product development, product design and diversification, sustainable use of raw material, craft techniques and skills, costing and pricing, marketing and selling, how to rub a crafts business, and financial management and business administration.

Examples include the rural development projects in Limpopo, where the CSIR linked with various rural craft projects to develop new products. In Thohoyandou, the Ifa textile project is producing fashionable handbags in traditional Venda design, while the crafters of the Lubombo SDI in northern KwaZulu-Natal have incorporated minimal interventions in their designs to produce butter dishes, thus creating new marketing opportunities.

The Department has 115 craft projects in all nine provinces. The products of these and other projects can be viewed in a number of places, including two State-assisted outlets at the Bus Factory in Newtown, Johannesburg, and the Boardwalk in Port Elizabeth.

Sithengi is South Africa's annual film and television market with extensive African and international appeal.

The NFVF, which was formed with the promulgation of the NFVF Act, 1997 (Act 73 of 1997), is the key co-ordinator and promoter of this industry.

The Department of Arts and Culture has allocated R35 million over the next few years for the establishment of a film fund for the NFVF. The fund is expected to attract international investment.

Through established industry players, South Africa offers film facilitation, logistics and administration-management services which ensure the successful production of films in South Africa. This is achieved through world-class facilities and professional film facilitators.

The establishment of film offices in the provinces is meant to support the above-mentioned services.

South Africa is at the cutting-edge in film, in terms of imagination, technology and product quality, with a wealth of experienced, talented and skilled people, both at management and operational level. Combined with the advanced technology employed across the industry, this talent provides foreign investors and producers with an excellent support infrastructure.

A number of large South African media companies have acquired production com-panies to increase their capabilities in the media and entertainment sector. The revenue generated from television production constitutes approximately 36% of the total annual film/television revenue.

The increase in the number of television channels available to South African viewers has resulted in an increased demand for local programming due to local-content quotas. In South Africa, locally produced television productions are extremely popular with viewers.

South African broadcasters are exploring opportunities to distribute local productions into the rest of Africa through direct sales and a form of bartering, where content is exchanged for advertising airtime. This is expected to increase the demand for locally produced television content.

The three largest film distributors in South Africa are Ster-Kinekor, UIP and Nu-Metro. Ster-Kinekor has a specialised art circuit called Cinema Nouveau with theatres in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria.

According to the Cultural Institutions Act, 1998 (Act 119 of 1998), a new streamlined system under which the declared institutions operate was established on 1 April 1999. In terms of this Act, the declared museum institutions in Gauteng and Cape Town are grouped together into two new organisations, known as Flagship Institutions. While the components of these two museum flagships (the museums from which they have been constituted) continue to operate as semi-independent museums with regard to their core functions (collecting, preservation, research and education), other functions, particularly administration, financing and human resource management, have been centralised.

The following museums currently report to the Minister of Arts and Culture in terms of the Cultural Institutions Act, 1998:

The Southern Flagship (renamed Iziko Museums of Cape Town) consists of the South African Museum, South African Cultural History Museum and its satellite museums, the South African National Gallery, the William Fehr Collection, and the Michaelis Collection.

In terms of the Cultural Institutions Act, 1998, the declared museums in other pro-vinces continue to operate as before. These include the National Museum and the Anglo-Boer War Museum (Bloemfontein), the William Humphreys Art Gallery (Kimberley), the Natal Museum and the Voortrekker Museum (Pietermaritzburg), the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity in Grahamstown, and the Foundation for Education, Science and Technology in Pretoria, which manages a science and technology museum. The aforementioned two museums fall under the Department of Science and Technology.

The Act also provides for a National Museums Division, comprising the Flagship museums and other declared museums.

The Robben Island Museum is very popular. It was established as a national monument and museum, and declared as South Africa's first World Heritage Site in 1999.

Guided tours are offered to historical sites on the Island, including the cell in which for-mer President Nelson Mandela was impris-oned. The Robben Island Museum has its own council and is a separate declared institution, independent of Iziko.

The breakwater wall at the Robben Island Museum is to be repaired at a cost of R21 million, while R11 million will be spent on jetties at the West Quay of the Waterfront, and R10 million on the Museum's general maintenance and upgrading.

For the 2003/04 financial year, a total of R13,5 million has been allocated from a
project totalling R25 million to establish the Qunu component of the Nelson Mandela Museum and R7,6 million has been allocated for the upgrading of the Bhunga building.

A further R9 million will be spent on instal-ling air-conditioning and additional storage facilities at the Iziko Museums, and R5,5 million for installing air-conditioning in the public gallery at the Natal Museum.

The Tswaing Crater Museum will receive R4 million for development, and R1,6 million will go towards the upgrading of the Kruger House Museum.

Apart from the declared museums that fall under the Department, there are also a number of other national museums, which are administered by central government departments or research councils. Notable examples are the Museum of the Council for Geoscience (Pretoria); the Theiler Veterinary Science Museum at Onderstepoort (Pretoria); the South African Air Force Museum at Air Force Base Zwartkop (Pretoria) with its satellites in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Durban; the museum of the Department of Correctional Services (Pretoria); and the Porcinarium (the world's first pig museum) outside Pretoria on the Irene campus of the Agricultural Research Council.

A number of museums fall directly or indirectly under the provincial government departments responsible for Arts and Culture. In some provinces, these museums render museum support services at provincial level, while other provinces, notably Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and the Free State, have separate museum-service organisations.

However, many museum and heritage services are also rendered by the declared national museums on a consultancy basis. Many municipalities also manage museums. Other museums fall under universities and university departments or are owned and managed by private-sector companies, NGOs and individuals.

The largest museums are situated in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Pietermaritzburg and Bloemfontein. The best-known natural history collections in South Africa are housed in the Iziko Museums and the Northern Flagship Institution, as well as in the following:

The South African Museum (Cape Town) showcases the natural history of South Africa, as well as relics of the early human inhabitants of the subcontinent. The huge Whale Hall houses possibly the most impressive of all its exhibitions. This is also the only collection in South Africa with a planetarium attached to it.

The Transvaal Museum in Pretoria houses the skull of Mr Ples (until recently known as Mrs Ples), a 2,5-million-year-old hominid fossil, and depicts the origin and development of life in South Africa, from the most primitive unicellular form of life to the emergence of mammals and the first human beings. It has a collection of early human fossils.

The Tswaing Meteorite Crater is situated to the north-west of Pretoria. It supports the Presidential Imperatives by combining a museum with a cultural-development initiative.

The NCHM (former African Window) in Pretoria is a centre for the preservation and communication of the culture and heritage of all South Africans. It explores cultural diversity and commonalities, links the present and the past to offer a better understanding of both, and nurtures the living culture of all South Africans. In addition, the Museum works with institutions and community-based organisations to host film festivals, arts and crafts exhibitions, seminars, conferences, festivals and other cultural events.

Mining is best represented by the De Beers Museum at the Big Hole in Kimberley, where visitors can view the biggest hole ever made by man with pick and shovel. It includes an open-air museum, which houses many buildings dating back to the era of the diamond diggings.

Another important mining museum is at Pilgrim's Rest, Mpumalanga, where the first economically viable goldfield was discovered. The entire village has been conserved and restored. It boasts beautiful examples of houses from the period of the gold rush, as well as an early mining camp and a complete reduction works.

Agriculture in South Africa is depicted mainly at two museums. These are Kleinplasie in Worcester, Western Cape, which showcases the wine culture and the characteristic architecture of the winelands, and the Willem Prinsloo Agricultural Museum between Pretoria and Bronkhorstspruit in Gauteng. The latter houses two 'house' museums, and runs educational programmes based on their extensive collection of early farming implements, vehicles of yesteryear, and indigenous farm animals. Both museums are famous for their mampoer and witblits ­ liquor distilled from fruit and grapes.

The Absa Museum and Archives in Johannesburg, which belongs to Amalgamated Banks of South Africa (Absa), aims to preserve the banking group's more than 110 years of history. It also houses a unique and very valuable coin and banknote collection.

The Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg offers a realistic portrayal of the political situation in the townships of South Africa during the 1970s and 1980s. Exhibitions in the Museum feature, among other things, audio-visual footage recorded during the apartheid era.

One of the most common types of museum in South Africa is the 'house' museum. Examples include an entire village nucleus in Stellenbosch; Groot Constantia in the Western Cape, which is an example of the lifestyle of the wealthy wine farmer; the mansion of the millionaire industrialist Sammy Marks, outside Pretoria; the Victorian affluence mirrored in Melrose House, Pretoria; and the Kruger House Museum in Pretoria, former residence of President Paul Kruger. Simpler architectural variations have not been neglected, for instance the pioneer dwelling in Silverton, Pretoria, and the humble farmhouse at Suikerbosrand near Heidelberg in Gauteng. There are several open-air museums which showcase the black cultures of the country, for example Tsongakraal near Letsitele, Limpopo; the Ndebele Museum at Middelburg, Mpumalanga; the Bakone Malapa (Northern Sotho) Museum at Polokwane, Limpopo; and the South Sotho Museum at Witsieshoek, Free State.

South Africa has two national military history museums. The South African Museum for Military History in Johannesburg reflects the military history of the country, while the War Museum in Bloemfontein depicts the Anglo-Boer/South African War in particular. The famous battlefields of KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape and North West are also worth a visit.

Also on the cards for 2003/04 was a major upgrading of the South African Military History Museum at a cost of R13 million.

The work of the War-graves division of the SAHRA includes the upkeep of the graves of victims of the struggle for the liberation of South Africa.

The archives of central government are preserved in the National Archives Repository in Pretoria; and provincial archives repositories in Pretoria, Cape Town, Pietermaritzburg, Durban, Ulundi, Port Elizabeth and Bloemfontein house archives dating from before 1910 as well as the relevant provincial archives. Records centres for archives younger than 20 years exist in Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Cape Town.

The retrieval of information from archives is facilitated by the national automated archival information system (www.national.archives. gov.za), which includes national registers of manuscripts, photographs and audio-visual material. National Archives also renders a comprehensive record-management service for current records, aimed at promoting efficient administration.

An important aspect of the Act is its mandate to National Archives to collect non-public records with enduring value of national significance. In so doing, National Archives is obliged to pay special attention to aspects of the nation's experience neglected by archives of the past. A key project in this regard is the Oral History Project, which seeks to build the National Archives' capacity to document the spoken word and to develop a national oral history programme. The automated National Register of Oral Sources is an important element of the project. The Act also provides government with a measure of control over private collections. Archives are taken to the people through co-ordinated national and provincial archive services. At the same time, National Archives is responsible for trying to ensure effective, transparent and accountable management of all public records.

The National Archives in Pretoria include the National Film, Video and Sound Archives. Its primary functions are to obtain and preserve films, videotapes and sound recordings of archival value, and to make these available for research and reference purposes.

The Bureau of Heraldry is responsible for the registration of coats of arms; badges and other emblems such as flags, seals, medals and insignia of rank and offices of order; as well as the registration of names and uniforms (colours) of associations and organisations, such as universities.

The Timbuktu Manuscripts Project was officially launched by President Mbeki and President Amadou Toumani Toure of Mali as Africa's very first New Partnership for Africa's Development cultural project on Africa Day, 25 May 2003.

The preservation of the Timbuktu Manuscripts is a Presidential Project co-ordinated by The Presidency and the Department of Arts and Culture through the National Archives.

President Mbeki first noted the existence of these manuscripts, which are believed to be more than 800 years old, during a visit to the Institut Des Hautes et de la Recherche Islamique (IHERI-AB) as part of his State visit to Mali in 2001.

He subsequently undertook that South Africa would assist with the preservation of the Manuscripts through exchange training and infrastructure-development programmes.

The National Archives of South Africa will lead the programme to build the infrastructure and develop skills in conservation and preservation management for the staff at IHERI-AB. A Trust Fund for the preservation of the Manuscripts was launched on 29 May 2003.