The chapter starts by giving an overview of South African economic performance and cultural policy over time, followed by a description of the methods and data used. The three main sections covering GDP contribution, employment and transformation, and int
An important part of understanding the creative economy is the ability to track developments over longer time periods. Chapter 5 of the Mapping Study provides longer-term analysis of the contribution of the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs) to South Africa’s GDP, employment and transformation, and international trade in cultural goods. Data is from a variety of national and international databases that provide reliable national data over time (further described in Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of the Mapping Study).
The direct contribution of the CCIs to the GDP of South Africa increased steadily from 1996 (2%) to a high of nearly 3% in 2010. The financial crisis of 2008/9 and the slowing growth rate of the overall economy have also resulted in a decline in CCI growth rate. In terms of GDP contribution, the largest and fastest growing domains are Audio-visual and Interactive Media, and Design and Creative Services. As expected from domains with higher levels of cultural and intrinsic value, the contribution of Performance and Celebration, and Cultural and Natural Heritage is lower, but they have maintained a steady growth rate over time. Of concern is that two of the larger domains, Books and Press, and Visual Arts and Crafts, have declining GDP contributions since 2012.
In 2008, before the financial crisis, cultural occupations provided 475 000 jobs (2.6% of the workforce). The following year saw a significant which reached a low point in 2015 with 323 500 people in cultural occupations (2% of the workforce). Since 2015, there has been significant recovery, although never reaching the pre-financial-crisis levels. The largest domains in terms of employment are Visual Arts and Crafts and Books and Press. Of concern is that, as with their GDP contributions, the number of people employed in these domains is declining over time. Although the gender bias is still evident, there is some evidence of ongoing transformation: The percentage of Black (including Black African, coloured and people of Indian or Asian origin) in cultural occupations has increased over time. There has also been a remarkable increase in the proportion of people in cultural occupations with tertiary education over this period, from 19.7% in 2005–2009, to 27.2% in 2015–2018.
International trade in cultural goods also fell sharply in response to the 2008/9 crisis, although the recovery (particularly of exports) was quick. For the first time in the last 20 years, South Africa had a cultural goods trade surplus in 2020. Cultural goods exports rose as a share of total export earnings from 2012 (0.25%) to 2018 (0.47%), declining to 0.37% in 2020.
Contrary to their declining share of GDP and employment, cultural goods exports are dominated by Books and Press, and Visual Arts and Crafts (although the latter has been falling since 2018). These were also the largest import domains. Although smaller, the Cultural and Natural Heritage domain shows a consistent trade surplus over time, and Performance and Celebration has shown remarkable growth.
South Africa’s largest trading partner of its cultural goods exports in the last 20 years is the US, followed by the UK, although the latter is becoming less important over time, as the importance of the African continent and China rises. Cultural good imports are sources mainly from the same three countries (US, UK, and China). While South Africa has a cultural goods trade surplus with the US over most of the time period studied, it has a large and growing cultural goods trade deficit with China.
