The DBE joined in the 2023 Heritage Month celebrations on 22 September 2023, when employees commemorated the special day with traditional dress, food, song and dance at the DBE Courtyard in Pretoria. Annually, September marks Heritage Month in celebration of South Africa’s rich and diverse cultural traditions and heritage. The theme for this year’s Heritage Month is: “Celebrating our cultural diversity in a democratic South Africa”.

Government calls on all South Africans to use Heritage Month to foster greater social cohesion, nation building and a shared national identity. The National Policy on Living Heritage emphasises the use of oral traditions and expressions, including language as a vehicle of intangible cultural heritage. It highlights the importance of performing arts, traditional craftsmanship, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices. South Africa has rich and diverse indigenous knowledge systems that have endured for generations. In every community, there are living human treasures who possess a high degree of knowledge, skills and history pertaining to different aspects of our diverse living heritage. Living Human Treasures are bearers of our indigenous knowledge and should educate our youth about positive moral values based on Ubuntu. Living heritage is the foundation of all communities and an essential source of identity and continuity.

South Africans must promote and protect South Africa’s rich and diverse cultural heritage by learning about their history and their past during Heritage Month. Government calls on its citizens to visit a cultural or heritage site as museums, art galleries and educational institutions help bring communities closer together. Cultural and heritage institutions play a healing role in communities and can prevent a recurrence of past injustices. We must commit to work together to eradicate the divisions and injustices of the past, to foster unity and to promote a conscious sense of being proudly South African.