Artivism conference in Pretoria

In recent times, there has been a growing global movement around 'Artivism', the use of the arts for social justice activism.  In the apartheid era, we referred to it as 'culture as a weapon of struggle' but now it has a far more polite name.  The Tshwane University of Technology hosted an Artivism conference two years ago and this year, they hosted a similar one on 1-2 October this year.  I was invited to facilitate a panel with film maker Rehad Desai and the deputy director general of the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture to reflect on where we were thirty-two years into our democracy.  The discussion was not kind or complimentary to the politicians or the Department....