How Cape Town's Zeitz Museum Can Be a Money Spinner For Cape Town and South Africa

How Cape Town's Zeitz museum can be money spinner for city, country

Sep 24 2017 12:28 

Carin Smith

Zeitz MOCAA (Pic: Iwan Baan)

RELATED ARTICLES

PICS: From grain silo to spectacular R500m African art museum

Zeitz Museum begins one-year countdown

This Airbnb trend bodes well for SA - report

Tourism boss predicts critical period for industry

Prestigious Swiss hotel school exploring SA potential

Key drivers of tourism in SA, Africa predicted

Cape Town - The new Zeitz Museum of Contemporary African Art (Zeitz MOCAA) in the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town will likely become one of the top three attractions in Cape Town, David Green, CEO of the V&A Waterfront, told Fin24.

The Waterfront team is, for instance, working closely with SA Tourism to gain local and international recognition for the museum.

The museum will provide a big boost to the Cape economy, according to the Wesgro (the official tourism, trade and investment promotion agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape).

In its view, the Zeitz MOCAA will attract potential investors and buyers from across the world who will contribute to economic growth and job creation.  

The Zeitz MOCAA is a partnership between the V&A Waterfront and Jochen Zeitz, who is the former CEO of Puma, co-founder with Sir Richard Branson of The B Team and Founder of the Zeitz Foundation for Intercultural Ecosphere Safety.

The museum has a number of different gallery spaces across 9 floors and is anticipated to be able to handle between 800 and 900 people at a time.

"This eagerly anticipated new Cape attraction promises to solidify Cape Town's position as the continent’s design capital and have a profound effect on the local tourism and knowledge economy," Wesgro said in a statement.

Wesgro's tourism team is working closely with the travel industry to promote the Zeitz MOCAA in order to contribute to its financial sustainability.

• READ: PICS: From grain silo to spectacular R500m African art museum

At the official opening on Friday Western Cape Premier Helen Zille said the Zeitz MOCAA will go down in modern history as one of the most iconic facilities to visit, not only in Africa, but in the world.

“We must also acknowledge the economic value this will add to the province. This iconic museum will attract guests from all over the world. This in turn will create jobs, and grow the economy. According to the latest available figures, the creative sector contributed R90.5bn to the SA economy," said Zille.

"This represents 2.9% of national gross domestic product (GDP). Cultural industries employ more than 440 000 people across the country.”

She commended the key partners including Zeitz and the V&A Waterfront team, for their work in not only creating this world class facility, but making it as accessible as possible to the public.

Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille said at the official opening the museum is a symbol of the confidence the city has in being African.

"The museum will be a key attraction to travellers from all over the world and will help us combat seasonality by turning Cape Town into a 365 days-a-year must-see destination," said De Lille.

In her view, art spurs conversations and creates platforms where we can confront our challenges, celebrate our diversity and build bridges.

According to Mark Coetzee, executive director and chief curator of the museum, the focus will also be on skills development and education.

In answer to a question about the accessibility of the museum to the wider SA community, Green said this aspect was actually at the heart of the project.

"It is a misnomer that the V&A Waterfront is not accessible. The V&A is an integrated space with free access to all," said Green.

The Zeitz MOCAA will, for instance, offer free access to those under 18 and the public can buy a ticket valid unlimited access for a year at R250.

Coetzee estimates that only 50% of the visitors to the museum will actually pay entrance fees.  

SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE UPDATE: Get Fin24's top morning business news and opinions in your inbox.

Read Fin24's top stories trending on Twitter: 

World’s largest museum dedicated to African art opens in Cape Town this week

World’s largest museum dedicated to African art opens in Cape Town this week: The world’s largest museum dedicated to contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora has been unveiled at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town, and will officially open its doors to the public on Friday. The Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (Zeitz MOCAA) is the V&A Waterfront’s R500-million project aimed at transforming a nearly 100-year-old concrete grain silo into a cutting-edge museum.

Uganda: Too Old For This

UGANDA

Too Old for This

Ugandans took to the streets in the capital Kampala on Thursday in protest of proposed legislation that would extend the rule of the nation’s longtime president, Yoweri Museveni.

Uganda’s constitution currently bars anyone over 75 years old from running for president, the Associated Press reports. Museveni, 73, has ruled the country for more than 30 years and would be ineligible to run for another term in 2021 unless that clause is removed.

The bill faces hefty criticism from civil society, as well as opposition groups and religious leaders who are calling for a national referendum on the matter before the new law goes into effect. They fear it would allow Museveni to rule for life.

Police responded to protesters Thursday with teargas. Dozens were arrested, including the mayor of Kampala, Erias Lukwago, a prominent government critic. Police also raided two NGOs accused of supporting the anti-government protests.

Ironically, Museveni claimed in the past that problems on the African continent are due to leaders “who want to overstay in power.” He later said he was only referring to those who weren’t democratically elected.

Orphanage Cocktail Bar

http://www.capetownmagazine.com/orphanage?utm_source=CapeTownMagazine.COM+Weekly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=270c94a971-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_09_05&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cf31da85aa-270c94a971-189805865

Fmily Style Feasting-4 Rooms

http://www.capetownmagazine.com/4roomed-foods?utm_source=CapeTownMagazine.COM+Weekly+Newsletter&utm_campaign=270c94a971-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_09_05&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_cf31da85aa-270c94a971-189805865

How An International Consulting Firm Ripped Off Eskom For R1.6 billion

http://www.fin24.com/economy/eskom/how-consultants-ripped-r16bn-from-eskom-and-planned-to-take-r78bn-more-20170913?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Fin24|AMUpdate&utm_term=www.fin24.com/economy/eskom/how-consultants-ripped-r16bn-from-eskom-and-planned-to-take-r78bn-more-20170913

Tunisia-The Second Battle

TUNISIA

The Second Battle

The Arab Spring of 2011 saw entrenched authoritarian regimes across North Africa buckle under the pressure of popular uprisings.

Six years later, only in Tunisia, where the Arab Spring began, is there a functioning representative democracy after decades of dictatorship, Stratfor comments.

But reforms are still needed to usher this developing nation over the finish line.

Tunisia is the Maghreb region’s most secular state and most ardent proponent of women’s rights, writes the BBC. Both were ideologies spearheaded by the nation’s founding father, Habib Bourguiba.

But progressive social politics come with a brutal authoritarian streak in Tunisia, writes Al-Fanar. Bourguiba often jailed and tortured political opponents, a tactic continued by his successor, President Zine El Abdine Ben Ali, a perceived-reformer turned corrupt autocrat.

Ben Ali was forced to resign in 2011 during the nation’s bloodless Jasmine Revolution, and political elites set about piecing together a democracy where none had existed before.

Political Islam became – and remains – a delicate and divisive issue. Tunisia’s arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, Ennahda, banned under prior regimes, drew support from fringes of society and grew in prominence. The party quickly secured a plurality in the nation’s first free elections.

But in secular Tunisia, the party and its hardline Islamic platform soon faced public condemnation, writes Haaretz.

Rather than digging in its feet and holding on to power, Ennahda learned from the mistakes of other failed Islamic uprisings: It split its religious and political wings. Ennahda now declares itself a party of Muslim Democrats and shares power with secularists, the Economist writes.

Such concessions serve as an example for other Arab states going through democratic transitions. But democratic political parties alone don’t make a successful state.

Tunisia’s economy was left in tatters after the uprising, and the government, preoccupied by constitutional reforms, has been slow to act. Official unemployment rates hover around 15 percent, but analysts say the real amount is far higher. In rural areas, where citizens frequently demand better representation and more opportunity from the nation’s energy companies, unemployment is double the national average, writes Stratfor.

In need of outside loans to stay afloat, Tunis recently pushedthrough a package of austerity measures at the demand of the International Monetary Fund. It will prove to be a tough battle given Tunisia’s strong unions and social welfare state, as well as mass protests against benefit cuts.

After establishing democracy, now the real battle will begin to keep it running.

“This government would be like a war cabinet, in a war against the corruption, against rampant unemployment and a war to save the economy,” said Prime Minister Youssef Chahed recently.

Like the beacon that inspired millions across the region to take to the streets six years ago, many hope Tunisia will be a trailblazer once again and win this war. Observers say at the very least the nation has a fighting chance.