Executive Direction - From the desk of...

KNOWING where we come from and who we are is what culture is. The repetition of rituals, beliefs, practices, and how we share knowledge is culture in motion.

We need for a cultural sea change for women, if we are to advance as a society. What will it take, asks Unathi Lutshaba in an opinion piece for South African Women's Month. Cultural change and capital are the answer to this seemingly insurmountable challenge. But representation also matters. Its only now that there seems to be a shift with more women’s sport being televised, feminist films such as Barbie making box office waves, and more women voicing their concerns with the status quo.

A new SACO contract and iteration is secured; and an update on empowering South African creative sector MSMEs to be great and showcasing it at the United Nations in New York.

When I took on the role of SACO Executive Director five years ago, I never imagined what would transpire in the intervening years. COVID-19; the meteoric rise of AI; digitalization at scale; radical new trends; and many social, economic and cultural shifts.

The year 2022 has been an eventful and exciting one for the cultural and creative sector. This is particularly so given that it was a year in which the industry was allowed to function for the full year without the lock-down restrictions witnessed in the two previous years.

As I pen this, I am beaming with excitement. After a four-year-long wait, the 4th SACO International Conference 2022 is finally here. We are literally a few weeks away from the much-anticipated SACO International Conference that so many in the industry have kept asking me about.

I am hopeful that as you read this edition of The Cultural Observer you are warm as this winter has been very chilly, with temperatures plummeting to close to zero degrees in some parts of the country.

This edition of The Cultural Observer is published during an interesting but complex international environment. While on the positive side the world has seen Covid-19 infections numbers subside, we are witnessing a war that has a devasting impact to the world economy.

As we publish this edition of the Cultural Observer, most of the West has placed South Africa in the travel red list owing to the Omicron variant of Covid-19 identified by the South African scientists.

As I write this, we are closing off the Heritage Month in SA, a period during which many South Africans make a deliberate effort to celebrate both their living and intangible cultural heritage in visible ways.

Stats SA’s latest quarterly labour force survey (1st quarter 2021) shows that South Africa’s unemployment rate, using the expanded definition of unemployment, increased by 0.6% to 43,2% in the first quarter of 2021. The figure is even higher amongst the youth (15 -34 years), with unemployment rate reported to be 46,3% for the same period.

The year 2021 started on a very bad note when the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic was devastatingly ruthless. It is difficult to find any family that has been spared or industry that has not experienced loss.