Cape Town - A summit on social cohesion, which will take place next month, is expected get South Africans talking about pertinent socio-economic issues that affect people from all walks of life, says Arts and Culture Minister Paul Mashatile.
"We are not going to Kliptown to discuss racism - we want to discuss issues of social cohesion," Mashatile said during a media briefing in Parliament.
Contrary to some reports, the minister said the summit was not convened to discuss racism or the heated debate around Brett Murray's painting, entitled The Spear, which depicted President Jacob Zuma in a denigrating manner.
The painting, which has since been sold to a German collector after it was defaced, has been given a 16N rating by the Film and Publication Board (FPB).
Mashatile said the summit was not a knee-jerk reaction to the debate around the painting but had been a year in the planning.
"If anything, the debate around The Spear came around the right time because it has awoken us that this dialogue is important," he said.
He said the debate had not take the country back, but awoken South Africans to the knowledge that "we are not there just yet", adding that he believed the country was on track to become a more socially-cohesive nation.
The country had abolished apartheid laws, introduced building blocks for a democratic society and introduced progressive new laws.
"It's not a target you can say will take five years, it's a process," he said.
Mashatile stressed that artists should not think that government's reaction to painting should be interpreted as a move to censor artists.
Artists, however, he said should contribute to nation building and try to find a balance between freedom of expression and respecting the rights of others.
The summit, themed "Creating a caring and proud society", will be held on July 4 and 5 at the Walter Sisulu Square of Dedication in Kliptown, Soweto - the same spot where the Freedom Charter, which forms the basis of South Africa's Constitution, was adopted in 1955.
President Jacob Zuma is expected to open the summit on 4 July. A declaration is expected at the end of the summit.
About 1 000 delegates will be invited to the summit - including leaders of various political parties and trade unions, religious leaders, academics and artists and members of civil society - including those from womens' youth organisations and representatives from Parliament.
Delegates would be placed in focused groups to discuss various challenges to creating a united South Africa - from gender to underemployment.
Delegates would be asked to debate what can be done and is being done in South Africa to boost nation building and specifically, what practical measures and campaigns can be carried out to improve social cohesion.
Mashatile said there were already a number of social cohesion programmes that the government and civil society were running, but said it was important to question whether these were sufficient.
"Building up to the summit, we are mobilising the nation to engage with the question: What does it mean to be a South African?"
He said robust debate at the summit would be welcomed, but that those attending are encouraged to provide solutions to issues of social cohesion, rather than just complaints.
The department is busy circulating a document on social cohesion, but Mashatile stressed that those attending the summit were free to express their own views on the matter.
Community conversations have been taking place over the past 18 month to debate the Department of Arts and Culture's social cohesion document, the department's chief director of marketing and public relations, Sandile Memela, said.
