PROJECT REPORT Costing the South African Public Library and Information Services Bill August 2013 This page is intentionally left blank Acknowledgements The Cornerstone team thanks Puleng Kekana, Joey van Zyl and Rose Phasha from the National Department of Arts and Culture for their support throughout the project, for their valuable feedback as part of the steering committee and for ensuring all administrative process ran smoothly. A special thanks to Judy Naidoo from National Treasury and Koekie Meyer from the Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts Culture and Recreation, who were also part of the steering committee. We thank them for their valuable and timely comments on reports and contributions during meetings. We would like to make particular mention of Jan Hattingh, Elsabe Rossouw and Rigard Lemmer for their work, spanning many years now, which has made it possible for the National Treasury to produce high quality budget data. Also at National Treasury, we thank Hennie Swanepoel and Daniel Makoni who assisted in providing electronic access to national and provincial budget information. We are conscious of the effort they made to ensure we received data we could work with. Mzi Shabangu at STATSSA provided population data at the ward level and made a special effort to ensure we had a dataset that we could merge with the schools data from the Department of Basic Education. Without his help, the detailed methodologies discussed in this report would not have been possible. We would also like to commend the Department of Basic Education for making schools data at the ward level available for download on their website. Thanks to Gerrit Kok of Royal HaskoningDHV in Gauteng for sharing the library infrastructure model he prepared for the Gauteng Department of Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation with us. We extend a special thanks to the following people who participated in interviews and/or infrastructure visits: Zintle Mahleka, Khanyisile Dube; M Dwebe, Bongiwe Chigumdu, Patricia Vubela, Jacomien Schimper, Anthony Reachable, Adele Bezuidenhout; Estelle Boers, Mpumie Mnyanda; Ronel Jacobs, Nobuntu Mpendulo; Izak Liebenberg, Irene Sithole; Mandla Ngubeni, Judith Zwane; Leslely Ralph, Carol Slater, Pearl Niemand; Aletta Botes, Mandla Ntombela, Tebogo Mzizi, Suraya Naidoo, Muluadzi Meshack, Philistas Mphahlele, Moramgwa Maake, Milhoti Mayevu, Elizabeth Marishane; Tania Kgoale; Patrick Mabotha; Mike Phaahla, Steve Mokhabuki, Christene Nel, Agnes Sithole, Jan Oosthuizen, Octavia Sebeko, Ms Sayiya, Shirley Xulu, Allen Swartbooi, Ina Engelbrecht, N.J (Calla) van Zyl , Fritz Van Dyk, Rosa de Klerk, T/D Sempe, Pieter Louw, Annetjie Botha, Rynette Kennedy, Mr Appolus; Mr Govendar, Nomazo Dingayo, Stefan Wehmeyer, Tessa Caroline, Pieter Hugo, Christine Gerber; Karen Jorgensen, Madelaine Terblanche; Sunet de Jongh; Talita Viola; Ilse Loock; Morne Dreyden, Ninnie Steyn Every one of these people generously shared their knowledge about libraries and information services in South Africa with us. Citation suggestion – Department of Arts and Culture, 2013. ‘Project Report for the Costing the South African Public Library and Information Services Bill’. Pretoria, South Africa Project team – Conrad Barberton Senior Researchers with Cornerstone Economic Research Jonathan Carter www.cornerstonesa.net Carmen Abdoll Costing the South African Public Library and Information Services Bill Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ............................................................................................................................. I CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 THE REQUIREMENT TO COST DRAFT LEGISLATION ................................................................................. 1 1.2 PROJECT ELEMENTS AND METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................... 2 1.3 STRUCTURE OF THE PROJECT AS IT RELATES TO THIS REPORT ................................................................... 4 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW: FUNDING PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN SOUTH AFRICA.......................... 7 2.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 7 2.2 KEY MOMENTS IN THE HISTORY OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN SOUTH AFRICA ..................................................... 7 2.3 THE HISTORY OF FUNDING PUBLIC LIBRARIES ....................................................................................... 8 2.4 CURRENT DEBATES IN THE FUNDING OF PUBLIC LIBRARIES ...................................................................... 9 2.5 DONATIONS AS A SOURCE OF FUNDING ........................................................................................... 14 2.6 CASE STUDIES: FUNDING PUBLIC LIBRARIES IN OTHER COUNTRIES ........................................................... 16 CHAPTER 3 PUBLIC LIBRARIES – MANAGING A SCHEDULE 5A FUNCTION ..................................... 23 3.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 23 3.2 HOW THE LIBRARIES FUNCTION WAS MANAGED IN THE PAST................................................................. 23 3.3 THE LEGISLATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR THE PERFORMANCE OF THE FUNCTION ............................................... 24 3.4 OPTIONS FOR FORMALISING RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE FUNCTION ........................................................... 25 3.5 FINANCIAL AND FISCAL CONSIDERATIONS ......................................................................................... 39 3.6 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON MANAGING THE LIBRARIES FUNCTION ........................................................ 41 3.7 PROVINCES’ APPROACHES TO MANAGING THE LIBRARIES FUNCTION........................................................ 44 3.8 RECOMMENDATIONS REGARDING THE SCHEDULE 5A ISSUES ................................................................ 46 CHAPTER 4 REVIEW OF SPENDING ON PUBLIC LIBRARIES – 2005 TO 2011 .................................... 49 4.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 49 4.2 PROVINCIAL DISCRETION TO PRIORITISE SPENDING ON PUBLIC LIBRARIES .................................................. 49 4.3 PROVINCIAL SPENDING ON PUBLIC LIBRARIES .................................................................................... 50 4.4 COMMUNITY LIBRARY SERVICES CONDITIONAL GRANT ....................................................................... 58 4.5 MUNICIPAL SPENDING ON PUBLIC LIBRARIES ..................................................................................... 62 4.6 SHARE OF SPENDING ON LIBRARIES BY SPHERE OF GOVERNMENT ........................................................... 64 4.7 DISCUSSION .............................................................................................................................. 67 CHAPTER 5 NORMS AND STANDARDS FOR COSTING THE BILL ...................................................... 69 5.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 69 5.2 NORMS AND STANDARDS IN THE BILL .............................................................................................. 69 5.3 NORMS AND STANDARDS USED TO COST THE BILL .............................................................................. 72 5.4 COSTING AND DEVELOPING NORMS AND STANDARDS FOR THE BILL ........................................................ 90 CHAPTER 6 COST OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN PUBLIC LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SERVICES BILL . 93 6.1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................................... 93 6.2 ALLOCATING LIBRARIES TO WARDS AND MUNICIPALITIES ..................................................................... 94 6.3 ESTIMATING THE UNIT COST OF LIBRARIES BY TYPE ............................................................................. 96 6.4 TOTAL COST OF BUILDING AND OPERATING THE REQUIRED LIBRARIES...................................................... 98 6.5 COST OF PROVINCIAL CAPACITY TO MANAGE THE LIBRARY FUNCTION .................................................... 100 6.6 COST OF STRATEGY TO PROMOTE INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES ............................................................... 101 6.7 SUMMARY OF THE TOTAL COST OF THE BILL BY PROVINCE .................................................................. 102 6.8 THE HUMAN RESOURCE IMPLICATIONS OF THE BILL .......................................................................... 103 6.9 PLACING THE ESTIMATED COST OF THE BILL IN PERSPECTIVE ............................................................... 104 CHAPTER 7 A FIVE-YEAR ROLLOUT PLAN FOR LIBRARIES’ INFRASTRUCTURE.............................. 107 7.1 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................... 107 7.2 INFRASTRUCTURE REQUIREMENTS OF THE NORMS AND STANDARDS ..................................................... 107 7.3 METHODOLOGY FOR ALLOCATING NEW LIBRARIES ........................................................................... 108 7.4 PROPOSED FIVE-YEAR ROLLOUT PLAN FOR LIBRARIES’ INFRASTRUCTURE ................................................ 113 7.5 OPERATIONAL IMPLICATIONS