A group of actors, producers and directors demonstrated on Thursday against the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s planned R500-million cut of local content.
The protesters, from the Television Industry Emergency Coalition (TVIEC), danced and sang ”what have we done” outside the broadcaster’s headquarters in Auckland Park.
They also performed a two-minute play showing a man in a skeleton mask choked by people wearing T-shirts marked ”culture”, ”viewers stories” and ”jobs”.
As the man moved from one person to another, he tied a rope around their neck and pulled it until the character symbolically ”died”.
”The last thing they [SABC] should do is to cut on local content while there is gross mismanagement within the SABC,” said independent producer John Stodel.
Audiences, he said, had proved that ”local is lekker”, as they preferred viewing local programmes.
Stodel said the SABC should look at ways to cut costs from within during the crisis.
”The SABC is spending on luxury cars and there is proof of mismanagement within the company, therefore independent producers should not suffer as a result,” he said.
Actor Terrance Bridget said buying content from abroad was cultural abortion.
”If you rob a country of the right to tell its own stories then you are killing the culture.” — Sapa