{"id":89655,"date":"2025-09-11T17:38:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T17:38:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/billions-spent-yet-villages-see-nothing"},"modified":"2025-09-11T17:47:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T17:47:30","slug":"billions-spent-yet-villages-see-nothing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/billions-spent-yet-villages-see-nothing","title":{"rendered":"Billions Spent Yet Villages See Nothing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>MK Party MP and musician Gezani \u201cPapa Penny\u201d Kobane has called on the department of sport, arts and culture to prioritise villages and townships, accusing the government of sidelining rural communities while billions are spent nationally.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking during a parliamentary portfolio committee meeting on sport, arts and culture this week, Kobane said South Africa\u2019s cultural heartbeat lies in its villages yet the benefits of government funding are rarely felt there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSouth Africa has its roots in the homes which are villages. You report millions, but nothing is happening in the villages,\u201d said Kobane.<\/p>\n<p>With Heritage Month under way, Kobane asked if the department\u2019s investments would reach ordinary people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe arts in September, South Africa should be buzzing because of the various cultures. This should be showcased in villages, townships, suburbs and towns. Will that money not be made for us, the people of South Africa?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n<p>Kobane, a household name in the entertainment industry before entering politics, accused government of using communities \u201conly for votes\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou just talk year to year, and when we need votes, we go to the people. When you look at the number of people who vote in high numbers, it does not come from the suburbs, it\u2019s villages. Let\u2019s take our culture and sports to the people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He pressed the minister to show tangible support for artists and children in rural areas, lamenting that cultural education is disappearing from schools.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe schools are no longer teaching culture and traditions. How will our culture come back to our land?\u201d Kobane asked. \u201cHere in the villages we don\u2019t have it. In South Africa billions are being used but in villages we don\u2019t see what they do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>He warned that young people were leaving villages for cities such as Johannesburg because \u201cthings are not happening at their homes\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Kobane also criticised how the department handles social cohesion, saying it is mostly achieved through national football.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe talk of social cohesion but we seem to be bringing South Africans together only in soccer, that is Bafana Bafana. Other sporting codes are not able to bring South Africans together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Directly addressing sport, arts and culture minister Gayton McKenzie, Kobane urged him to act differently from his predecessors.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWork hard, people can talk but show us something. Be different from other ministers who were there for 30 years. We are starting to count one year with you not 30 years with you. Show us something new for arts, sports and culture.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>McKenzie responded by agreeing with Kobane\u2019s call for rural focus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s true what you are saying, there should not be competition between province and national because we must serve the people. I am agreeing with you fully on that matter,\u201d said McKenzie.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI come from the village now. The last project I did was to open a multimillion-rand facility in the village of Mbhokota, so I understand what you are saying. We should not look at coloured, Xhosa and all that. We must look at [the fact that] we are all South Africans,\u201d said McKenzie<\/p>\n<p>McKenzie said that his department was introducing initiatives to strengthen support for artists. This comes after he was accused of not supporting artists enough.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the first time, we are going to have offices for artists that will have lawyers in it,\u201d he said. \u201cFor the first time we have sectors that represent every creative sector.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor the first time, we are going public now for funeral policies and hospital plans for artists. It has never happened in 30 years. The first time it is going to happen,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. MK Party MP and musician Gezani \u201cPapa Penny\u201d Kobane has called on the department of sport, arts and culture to prioritise villages and townships, accusing the government of sidelining rural communities while billions are spent nationally. Speaking during a parliamentary portfolio committee meeting on sport, arts and culture this week, Kobane said [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":89654,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-89655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Billions Spent Yet Villages See Nothing - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"MK Party MP and musician Gezani \u201cPapa Penny\u201d Kobane has called on the department of sport, arts and culture to prioritis ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/billions-spent-yet-villages-see-nothing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Billions Spent Yet Villages See Nothing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"MK Party MP and musician Gezani \u201cPapa Penny\u201d Kobane has called on the department of sport, arts and culture to prioritis ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/billions-spent-yet-villages-see-nothing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-11T17:38:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-11T17:47:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1757600131.214692.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"666\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/billions-spent-yet-villages-see-nothing#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/billions-spent-yet-villages-see-nothing\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Billions Spent Yet Villages See Nothing\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-11T17:38:13+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-11T17:47:30+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/billions-spent-yet-villages-see-nothing\"},\"wordCount\":626,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/billions-spent-yet-villages-see-nothing#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1757600131.214692.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/billions-spent-yet-villages-see-nothing#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/billions-spent-yet-villages-see-nothing\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/billions-spent-yet-villages-see-nothing\",\"name\":\"Billions Spent Yet Villages See Nothing - 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