Building political power is an art than a science. It should be no surprise what the role of art, culture and heritage has been in political change throughout history. Art has been a tool for articulating new ideas, organising around common issues and mobilising people to take collective action.

Yet, in SA where political change is once again urgent, the arts remain undervalued and untapped. One of the fundamental freedoms a democratic country was meant to deliver on is the freedom of expression.

From a regime that banned books, suppressed music and muzzled black actors for showcasing the true struggles of the oppressed majority, the hope that a new SA offered people in the arts was a country where the arts are not only celebrated but artists are supported and their contributions to building a better society are valued.

SA’s creatives are talented and bountiful with stories and ideas that can change a nation, but too many find themselves locked out of the social, political and economic life of the country.

Artists are exploited because of inadequate laws to regulate work in their industries and manipulated by the concentration of resources in the hands of a few who dare to hold entire creative sector industries at ransom if artists dare to use the arts to build political consciousness.

The South African Guild of Actors (Saga) has for many years championed the rights of actors to fair working conditions, the right to unionise and the right to fair compensation for their work through royalties. This fight is highlighted again in new ways in a petition by Saga onchange.org to “Stop Exploitation of SouthAfrican Actors: An Urgent Call for Basic Rights”, a call to stop the introduction of clauses in actors and voiceover artist contracts that would allow companies to replicate and manipulate artists images and voices for reproduction in future without any decent compensation.

Actors’ future livelihoods are being destroyed through unjust practices in a society meant to be free and fair. Musician and activist Nomsa Mazwai said after the release of her political single,Insta Life , that it is easier in SA to be funded for music that distracts us while dancing, also known as groove, than music that builds consciousness becauseit reflects on the distress of the country and the need for change.

But, as the legendary Bra Hugh Masekela and Mam’ Letta Mbuli once sang, “What’s wrong with grooving?

”Why can’t musicians sing what they want to without fear or threats to their livelihoods? This iconic song was used to defy the attempts of the apartheid government to control black youth, deprive them of joy and constrain their freedoms. Listening to these songs in an underground basement in downtown Johannesburg, in a room of young people contemplating their role in the making of this society today and into the future was a stark reminder that part of the fight for a better and just society must include a fight for an investment in the arts.

The valuing of arts as  transformative and healing.This must be fortified by respecting artists as workers, activists and change makers as worthy of the right’s full participation in the economyof the country with the benefit of all the rights they deserve.

They must embrace their voice in the social and political discourse of the country, with all the freedoms apartheid denied their predecessors. The arts are not a frivolous endeavour, and the talents of artists are not less valuable than the efforts of others.

Artists contribute to the making of our society. The failure to recognise the arts, culture and heritage in a SA that claims to have broken with its oppressive past is a failure to give full effect to our freedom. It starves the nation of much-needed opportunities for reflection, growth, joy and healing the arts so effortlessly provides.

Beyond the applause, artist deserve our solidarity as they too pursue a just, equitable and prosperous SA.