While understanding the size and composition of the creative economy at a national level is an important objective of the mapping study, the report also aims to be useful at a provincial level, where much cultural policy is applied, and could form an impo
The size and composition of the creative economy at a provincial level is an important aim of the mapping study since much cultural policy is applied sub-nationally. This chapter augments Chapters 1 (The macroeconomic impact of the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) in South Africa), 2 (Cultural Employment and Transformation) and 3 (International Trade in Cultural Goods and Services).
Information about the creative economy at sub-national level could form an important part of both regional and provincial growth and development and local economic development (LED) strategies. This report highlights the size and composition (according to the domains set out in the UNESCO Framework) of the CCI contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP), its labour force as well as CCI exports.
As can be expected, the trends observed when analysing economic growth, employment or trade tend to follow each other.
As found in previous mapping studies, the largest domains in terms of contribution to GDP are Design and Creative Services, and Audio-visual and Interactive Media. The dominance of these domains is expected, since they create more commercial cultural and creative content which is used in film and television, video games, fashion design, architecture and advertising.
Gauteng contributes 36.3% to South Africa’s CCI Gross Value Added (GVA) which is the highest contribution from any province. The other two provinces that are substantial contributors are the Western Cape (17.4%) and KwaZulu-Natal (15.6%). All provinces, including these three, have the potential to increase the production of the CCIs and their contribution to the provincial economy.
The UNESCO (2009) Framework points out that cultural workers may be found in cultural industries, but also in other industries doing cultural work. A useful model for demonstrating this effect is the “Cultural Trident” (Higgs and Cunningham, 2008). CCI employment was analysed per province using this approach with data collected by Statistics South Africa’s (Stats SA) Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2019 (the most recent annual data at the time of writing). The creative economy employment still makes up a relatively small percentage of the South African workforce (6% in 2019). The provinces with the largest CCI employment shares are Gauteng (29.4%), Western Cape (18%), and KwaZulu-Natal (17%).
The three leading provinces in terms of production of CCIs are also the three provinces that export most. The Western Cape is responsible for approximately 53% of South Africa’s CCI exports, followed by Gauteng (32.4%) and KwaZulu-Natal (10.9%). Again, there is potential for the provinces, especially those that border on other African countries, to increase cultural goods. The Northern Cape’s largest market for CCI exports, for example, is Namibia.
South Africa’s culture and creativity have important intrinsic and social values, as well as the economic ones discussed here. Provinces each bring their own richness to the sector and regional differences need to be explored to determine where additional CCI production can be encouraged, especially where it leads to employment and exports.
