Natural History

About Us

About Ditsong

About us

DITSONG: MUSEUMS OF SOUTH AFRICA is an amalgamation of eight museums, seven in Tshwane and one in Johannesburg. These museums have diverse collections covering the fields of fauna and flora, palaeontology, military history, cultural history, geology, anthropology and archaeology. The target audience for these museums are children, youth, adults, students, tourists (foreign and local), researchers and the public in general.

Mandate of Ditsong

MANDATE

Collection, conservation and safe management of national heritage collections on behalf of the South African nation.

Carry out research and publish such information for the cultural, social and economic use locally and internationally.

Render heritage-based service to other museums as well as to individuals and tertiary institutions.

Our Vision

Vision

Sustainable museums, accessible and relevant to all.

Our Mission

Mission

To acquire and preserve, research, exhibit and display heritage assets, and educate the public on cultural, military and natural heritage in a sustainable and transformational manner.

Our Values

Values

In working towards the achievement of its vision and mission, DITSONG: Museums of South Africa subscribes to the following internal values, which are in line with the Batho-Pele principles.

About DITSONG: Museums of South Africa

We Are Ditsong

PROFESSIONALISM

We execute our duties with utmost professionalism to improve the reputation of the Institution; We continually strive towards acquiring more knowledge and expertise and by growing and developing our competencies and capabilities we strive to be thought leaders in the knowledge and heritage sectors;
We advance the rights of vulnerable groups and promote access to our programmes and facilities.

ACCOUNTABILITY

We are responsible and answerable that the products and services provided by our museums are of the best possible quality, given our resources and capabilities, and are delivered in accordance with the principles of good governance;
When mistakes are made, we take corrective action and resolve the situation quickly, ensuring that lessons learnt inform new, improved approaches to how we work.

ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR

We view our responsibility for preserving, creating awareness and building knowledge about in a serious light;
Our decisions and actions are therefore considered and based on what is the correct action to take;
Our ethical behaviour means that we have zero-tolerance towards unfairness and discrimination of any form.

EXCELLENCE

We strive for excellence in all that we do. We know that our impact and sustainability is dependent on putting people first, especially our customers and employees;
We therefore benchmark ourselves with international best practices, as we move towards being a digitally transformed, accessible and relevant group of museums.

TEAMWORK

We are committed to working as a team and creating synergies for shared learning and improved efficiencies across all our museums;
As a team, we support each other and work tirelessly at building the reputation of our brand as the place“where cultures meet”.

VALUING OUR PEOPLE

To count and be counted, our people are the heartbeat of DITSONG;
Each person matters, they are valued, they are developed, their opinion is important and their contributions are recognised.