Johannesburg, September 3, 2026 - The South African Cultural Observatory (SACO) will share the findings of its "Cultural and Creative Industries Economic Trends over the last 10 years” review report at the Creative Cnergy Policy & Investment Symposium 2026, taking place on Thursday, 03 September 2026 at AlexForbes, Sandton, in a fireside chat with Prof. Pitika Ntuli.
The report responds to one of the most persistent barriers facing South Africa's creative economy: access to finance.
Drawing on a decade of South African and international data, SACO's research is designed to give not only government, but banks, investors and policymakers the kind of evidence base they would expect before committing capital to any other sector, turning the creative economy's growth story into something they can act on with confidence.
That growth story is considerable. South Africa's cultural, creative and sport industries together contribute an estimated R271 billion to GDP — almost 4% of the national economy — and support close to 1.4 million jobs, according to SACO's most recent, 2024, mapping of the sector. Yet this 2025 report finds that this growth has not translated into reliable access to capital.
Public funding for the sector has been declining internationally for over a decade, and more than a third of people working in South African cultural occupations do so on a freelance or own-account basis, more than three times the rate elsewhere in the economy, a pattern of work that conventional lenders are often not set up to assess.
“South Africa's creative and cultural industries have shown real, measurable growth over the past decade, yet access to finance has remained uneven because the underlying evidence has rarely been assembled in a form that banks and investors can act on,” said Unathi Lutshaba, SACO Executive Director.
“This report draws together ten years of data across every domain of the sector, from digital platforms to international trade, to give financial institutions the same quality of evidence they would expect before investing in any other part of the economy.”
“Our hope is that it moves the conversation from describing the sector's potential to financing its growth,” she added.
The report will be discussed as part of a symposium programme that also includes panel discussions on AI and copyright reform, and continued momentum following the IDC's R1 billion Youth in Film Fund, launched at Creative Cnergy's inaugural 2025 symposium.
This matters, adds Lutshaba. “Creatives across the country continue to build sustainable businesses despite limited access to capital, and this report sets out, in detail, where that capital is most needed and where the opportunities for investors actually lie. By giving stakeholders reliable evidence, we hope to help turn the sector's well-documented growth into financing decisions that reach creative businesses directly.”
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