One more advantage to being vaccinated – the Western Cape Government has announced free access to certain museums in the province during Heritage Month. Minister Anroux Marais announced free access to affiliated museums for those presenting vaccination cards, both fully and partially vaccinated.
“Usually visitors pay an entry fee to access our museums across the province, but to encourage all to get vaccinated, we are happy to waive this fee for the month of September in a bid to increase our vaccination numbers, while promoting our affiliated museums as we now contain, adapt and recover in the Western Cape,” said Marais.
The following museums are free to those vaccinated for the month of September, Heritage Month:
| Bartolomeu Dias Museum (Mossel Bay) |
| Beaufort West Museum |
| CP Nel Museum (Oudtshoorn) |
| Drostdy Museum (Swellendam) |
| Genadendal Museum |
| Great Brak River Museum |
| Hout Bay Museum |
| Jan Danckaert Museum (Porterville) |
| Montagu Museum |
| Old Harbour Museum (Hermanus) |
| Oude Kerk Volksmuseum (Tulbagh) |
| SA Fisheries Museum (Laaiplek) |
| Stellenbosch Museum |
| Togryer Museum (Ceres) |
| Wellington Museum |
| Wheat Industry Museum (Moorreesburg) |
| Worcester Museum |
According to the minister, the plan is to promote our affiliated museums through this campaign, and commemorate National Heritage Month – acknowledging that cultural heritage goes beyond that which we find in our built environment, such as buildings, towns and monuments. It includes our overall collective traditions and inherited lived expressions through oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, language and crafts. Intangible cultural heritage is an important part of maintaining cultural diversity.
Minister Marais appealed to all members of the public to get their vaccination as soon as they can – the sooner South Africa can reach our vaccination targets, the sooner we can start safely opening up more of the cultural sector particularly the arts industry to allow us to slowly start returning to having live audiences at events. We must do this to support the live events, as well as our artists and sportspeople, in our province.
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