September marks the celebration of South Africa’s rich and diverse heritage and this year’s theme is “Reimagine our heritage institutions for a new era”.
This theme invites us to broaden the conversation on heritage beyond preserving the past. Heritage is a living economic asset. The creative economy sustains it by interpreting our stories for new audiences and supporting livelihoods across the country. If we want heritage institutions and platforms to remain relevant, innovative and socially responsive, we must also reimagine how the creative economy is financed.
The creative economy is a strategic lever for economic growth. Africa’s creative economy is estimated at $58-59 billion, which accounts for under 3% of the about $2 trillion global creative industry – reflecting the sector’s immense potential. Across the continent, the creative economy is a powerful catalyst for young people and women’s entrepreneurship, cultural expression and sustainable innovation. Locally, South Africa’s cultural and creative industries contribute close to R300 billion to gross domestic product and support an estimated 1.4 million jobs. Their reach extends further through tourism, hospitality, transport, local trade and the digital economy. A production that tours, a festival that fills accommodation or a community screening that draws an audience creates work well beyond the stage or screen.
Yet the sector’s economic value sits alongside deep financial fragility. Declining public funding, changes to funding focus and delays in grant disbursements can put established festivals, independent artists and small creative enterprises under immediate pressure. Because much of the work is seasonal and project-based, a delayed or cancelled programme quickly translates into lost contracts for artists, technicians, caterers, transport providers and traders. For young people and women in rural and peri-urban areas, it can close one of the few accessible routes into income-generating work.
This pressure exposes how many organisations depend on a narrow funding base — a structural weakness in the creative economy. Public funding remains essential, particularly where cultural value is high but commercial returns are uncertain. However, resilience requires a broader mix of grants, sponsorship, philanthropy, private investment, ticket or service income and other earned revenue. It also requires support that helps creative practitioners build enterprises, gain market access and move from intermittent assignments towards more durable income pathways.
The answer, therefore, is not simply to replace every lost funding rand for rand. It is to make the available capital work harder. Challenge funds, particularly those that deploy public funds such as the Jobs Fund — an initiative of the treasury — offer one practical approach. They are competitive financing mechanisms that combine public grants with resources from implementing partners or third-party funders through matched funding, sharing risk and linking investment to defined outcomes. When designed well, this model attracts additional capital, strengthens accountability, and encourages organisations to test more sustainable revenue models.
Evidence from the Jobs Fund’s Festival Enterprise Catalyst and Spark Impact Programme offers practical examples. Led by the National Arts Festival and industry partners, the Festival Enterprise Catalyst is a R20 million initiative that combines a R10 million Jobs Fund grant with R10 million in matched funding. It supports new productions, national touring, creative enterprises and technical skills development across all nine provinces. By 31 March 2026, it had created 1,108 jobs against a target of 364, trained 357 people and supported 208 touring productions against a target of 28.
Importantly, the model is also being tested in practice. When the Festival Enterprise Catalyst’s original ticket revenue-sharing mechanism proved unsuitable, it replaced it with a voluntary pay-it-forward contribution after beneficiary feedback. That willingness to adapt matters. Sustainable funding models cannot be imposed as fixed formulas on a diverse sector. They must be tested against the realities of creative work, measured honestly and refined without losing sight of employment outcomes.
The Spark Impact Programme, initiated by Sunshine Cinema, demonstrates a complementary pathway. It equips unemployed young people from rural and peri-urban communities with technical, entrepreneurial and facilitation skills to earn income as freelance digital media entrepreneurs.
The programme received a R9.16 million Jobs Fund grant blended with R5.49 million from philanthropic and private partners. By 31 March 2026, the programme had created 137 jobs, trained 80 impact facilitators and enabled participants to secure R1.79 million in self-employment contracts, more than three times its target.
Its mobile, solar-powered screening model also takes cultural content and community engagement to audiences beyond established venues.
These examples do not suggest that challenge funds are a universal substitute for conventional arts funding. Smaller early-stage organisations may need capacity-building before they can raise matched finance, manage complex partnerships or report against formal employment measures. Nor should every cultural activity be judged only by its immediate commercial return. The lesson is that different instruments should play different roles: foundational grants can protect cultural value and widen access, while catalytic finance can help proven ideas mobilise partners, diversify income and scale job creation.
Heritage honours the past and shapes the future. A resilient creative economy allows South Africans to do both. By using public capital to crowd in other resources, supporting adaptable creative enterprises and measuring the livelihoods generated, we can protect the platforms that tell our stories while opening credible pathways into jobs. That is how heritage can remain alive, economically inclusive and equipped for a new era.
Najwah Allie-Edries is the head of the Jobs Fund.