Black filmmakers and producers have complained that administrative bungling by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) is driving them to financial ruin.
Disgruntled filmmakers told the Mail & Guardian that a lack of coordination between the creative hub of the SABC and the financial and legal departments was preventing them from receiving payment for commissioned work.
The bitter complaints have surfaced against the backdrop of SABC CEO Dali Mpofu’s announcement of a new corporate strategy, stressing the need for the SABC to focus on its role as a public service broadcaster for “total citizen empowerment”.
One of the artists commissioned to make a film about the June 16 1976 Soweto uprisings, Nokuthula Mazibuko, said she had run up debts of R60Â 000 because of the corporation’s failure to pay.
Another of the June 16 filmmakers, Steve Mokoena, complained that artists were forced to plan work for the corporation “by rumour”.
“You know someone who knows someone at the SABC and you hear, oh by the way, those things are happening. And then you hear another rumour that it has been cancelled,” Mokoena said.
An SABC employee had conceded to him that some filmmakers’ work had even been aired without payment. “A woman in the legal department said to us: ‘When I say your contract will be signed next week, I am making a silent prayer.”
The filmmakers insist that the SABC, used to dealing with established production companies, could not accommodate emerging black artists unable to finance their projects themselves and who needed pre-payment.
Angry industry insiders contrast their treatment with the SABC’s party to celebrate the Oscar success of Tsotsi, which allegedly cost hundreds of thousands of rands and was organised at very short notice.
One way of enhancing the public broadcast role would be through programming that seeks to generate quality local content.
Mazibuko, commissioned last August to produce a documentary as part of a series of films commemorating the 30th anniversary of June 16 1976, says she is now in heavy debt and still does not have a contract from the SABC.
“I am going to have to hide,” she says. “I have to disappear, it is quite terrible. I don’t know what I am going to do.”
Mazibuko says her film is already in post-production, racking up debts of more than R60 000. The work is to be aired on the SABC on June 7, yet she has not been paid.
“It puts the filmmaker in limbo,” said Mazibuko. “You can’t create quality products in these circumstances.”
The head of the Black Filmmakers Network, Thapelo Pelo, said Mazibuko’s predicament was quite common among emerging black filmmakers.
Pelo said numerous industry players had told him they were facing financial ruin because of the SABC’s failure to pay.
“We have gone to the SABC with a number of cases where individuals are experiencing these problems, but there is never a solution,” said Pelo.
Mokoena said that at a meeting with SABC officials this week he had suggested that the 10 June 16 film-makers hold a protest sit-in outside Mpofu’s office.
“Somebody from the SABC, whose name I will not mention, said: ‘Well you can go ahead dear, but they are all playing golf.’ Maybe we storm the golf courses next.”
The SABC, which had historically only dealt with established companies, had not been able to accommodate emerging black filmmakers who did not have overdraft facilities.
“When they don’t pay for six months it shuts the artists down,” said Pelo. “We are shooting ourselves in the foot by working for the SABC, because we don’t have the capacity to carry these projects on our own.”
Pelo said the SABC’s content department was “biting off more than it can chew” and was out of sync with the legal and finance departments.
Award-winning filmmaker Kevin Harris, also commissioned to make a June 16 documentary, said he had e-mailed Mpofu three times to ask for someone to take charge and tell him when he could begin work. He had yet to receive a response.
Harris said the SABC’s legal and finance departments simply lacked the capacity to deal with all the work.
“If a lady at the till in Pick ’n Pay doesn’t have the change to serve you, what do you do? You don’t yell at the till lady — it is a management problem,” he said.
Harris said the 10 filmmakers involved in the June 16 series would not begin work until they received payment. “June ’76 will not happen in June,” Harris said.
Mokoena said some of his sources for the June 16 documentary were getting on in years. “There’s a risk that some may die if the film is continuously stalled.”
In an ironic twist, one of Mokoena’s intended sources, black consciousness stalwart Strini Moodley, died this week.
Mokoena said the flagship project had the full blessing and support of the SABC board, but board members did not know what filmmakers were going through.
“It is an irony that a bunch of people making films about the experiences of transformation are being forced to grovel like beggars,” he said.
SABC’s general manager of the content hub, Yvonne Kgame, said the SABC had managed to bring on board many new black producers, however, it does acknowledge that there are hiccups in the business processes and a task team has been appointed to address these shortfalls as a matter of urgency.
“This project was commissioned by the SABC, driven by the need to recognise this important milestone in our history and all problems pertaining to contracts and payments are being dealt with by the assigned multidisciplinary task team,” said Kgame.