Asinamali! The name of Mbongeni Ngema’s play is also the cry of workers in the performing arts industry
‘How do we heal the relationship that we have with spaces that give us resources so that we recognise our inherent value and we are not always the needy people that need to be saved?” asks Nwabisa Plaatjie, a playwright.
The destabilising nature of the Covid-19-induced lockdowns put a spotlight on the precarity and vulnerability faced by all who work in theatre and dance. As the economy staggers to its feet, artists continue to face income insecurity.
The rallying cry of “Asinamali” made famous by Mbongeni Ngema’s 1980s play, recently revived at the National Arts Festival in Makhanda, could easily reverberate around the performing arts today. It is certainly the feeling of many young artists. Xolisile Bongwana, dancer and musician, decried the lack of a stable income in the industry saying that “sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s bad”. It’s a sentiment shared by Tiisetso Mashifane wa Noni, a playwright and educator: “In the performing arts you can’t just do one thing; you’ll find yourself in a very tricky position most of the time.”
This instability forces artists to constantly be seeking out their next paying project or supplementing their income through other trades. And, as Mashifane wa Noni points out, this state of insecurity for the majority of those in the sector contrasts with that of those “working in the structure of a theatre. [For example], the marketing person or a creative director or artistic director or CEO or something like that.” The implication is that the full-time employees of performing arts institutions are protected by labour law and have stable incomes.
Addressing this core need for stable income is no simple task. The performing artist as worker, individually and collectively, has little recourse in matters of labour relations, bargaining power, nor broader social security. This is a critical issue that occupies the sector and has manifested in recent campaigns.
The Charter for Rights of South African Artists launched by #IM4THEARTS and the Theatre and Dance Alliance (TADA) in 2021 asserts “the right to work and to offer our labour in whatever form we choose: as full-time employees, part-time employees, independent contractors, freelance or self-employed workers, which forms shall not preclude us from the rights and protections afforded other workers”. Two recent policy interventions attempt to extend these labour protections to artists.
On the back of the activism of arts organisations, the first policy intervention wants to secure a sectoral determination through the department of employment and labour. This would see freelance artists “recognised as ‘employees’ with the definition in the Labour Relations Act (LRA) extended to include contract workers/independent contract workers, which are overwhelmingly those engaged in our sector, but are excluded from the benefits and protections of the LRA as they are not ‘employees”, explains veteran playwright and arts activist Mike van Graan.
The South African Guild of Actors has led the call for the sectorial determination within the context of film and television. They have now drawn in TADA to coordinate the campaign to ensure that the final policy takes into account the dynamics of live performance as well. This goes a way to closing the sharp inequality pointed out by Mashifane wa Noni.
The second policy development marks a huge step forward for the department of sport, arts and culture, which has paid lip service to policy development and adoption during Minister Nathi Mthethwa’s time in office.
Breathing New Vision into Theatre and Dance in South Africa is the title of a recently released policy document for public consultation. The policy was drafted by Van Graan, David April, Bobby Rodwell and Lebogang Nawa. Those familiar with the Stand Foundation’s Vision Discussion Document of September 2020 will see the strong resemblance. This demonstrates the capacity of civil society to shape policy priorities.
As Van Graan describes it, “The policy recommends a fundamental shift away from public sector support for expensive infrastructure (basically inappropriate theatres inherited from apartheid) to theatre and dance companies employing practitioners, in each province … [alongside a] recommendation for a national circuit with at least one subsidised venue per province, a network of festivals, etc, that create circuits for the longer circulation of work. Those are just two points in this regard. And then, of course, there are the proposals for a stronger social benefit net for the sector.”
The ambitiously titled policy document reads as a system reset button.
To see through the adoption and implementation of this bold policy, sustained levels of organising in the industry are essential. Reflecting on the rise in mobilisation and emergence of new organisations, Plaatjie said she “honestly thought they were a new thing and [I] was excited. It felt like we were coming together only to find out that there have been people doing this type of organising since the 1980s and the early 1990s so it feels like an opportunity once again to build together.”
Protest theatre: Ubuntu Arts and dancers performed during the Cape artists’ protest against the National Arts Council and the department of sports, arts and culture over funding connected to the Presidential Economic Stimulus Plan in response to the pandemic. (Brenton Geach/Gallo Images)
It appears that there has been a loss of momentum which risks the loss of institutional knowledge if contemporary efforts do not learn from their predecessors’. Perhaps this is what Van Graan gestures towards in saying, “The sector has been apathetic — and still largely is — about the macro issues that affect it; Covid was a wake-up call, but there still is not anywhere near the levels of engagement, knowledge and activism required of the sector if it is to secure a more sustainable practice for itself.”
The proliferation of organisations is an attempt to address this but they have yet to deepen their base.
At least five organisations emerged focused on theatre and dance at an industry wide level. These were #IM4TheArts, Theatre and Dance Employers Association of South Africa, Stand Foundation, South African United Cultural and Creative Industries Federation, and TADA. They share the value of harnessing the energy of many stakeholders. Other than the Stand Foundation, they are representative bodies allowing for either individual or organisational membership. They
reflect the widespread consensus that the Cultural and Creative Industries Federation of South Africa established in 2015 by the then department of arts and culture has failed to represent artists’ interests even as the lockdowns ravaged the industry.
With more platforms to raise concerns about the industry, Plaatjie highlights what is required for this increased mobilisation to be effective. “If you are in an alliance then you need to know how to participate in that alliance. And without the education, without the resources, without the knowledge of what the topics you are delving in are or the policies that need to change are, it becomes very hard to engage and to participate.”
She continues to make an example of how this may be seen in low engagement with the draft policy.
As we celebrate the emergence of new organisations, it is helpful to reflect on how they are capturing the interests of the artists they seek to represent. Bongwana and Mashifane wa Noni offer differing opinions on this matter, which may be indicative of the considerations of other young people in the sector. In response to the question of whether they feel that their interests are represented in the new organisations, Bongwana said, “This is a question I’m also asking myself — if I’m being represented well at times.”
He said he would feel more represented if he saw arts organisations campaigning robustly toward a universal basic income grant.
Mashifane wa Noni, who has “dabbled in one or two of these organisations”, said her “interests are represented”.
Protest theatre: Ubuntu Arts and dancers performed during the Cape artists’ protest against the National Arts Council and the department of sports, arts and culture over funding connected to the Presidential Economic Stimulus Plan in response to the pandemic. (Alet Pretorius/ Gallo Images)
She believes that through participation, albeit limited, she has seen “the extent of the work that … needs to be done to overhaul the sector”.
I had set out to write about the specific labour conditions needed for artists in the dance and theatre sector to sustain their livelihoods, but what emerged most clearly through discussions with artists and the multiple policy interventions is that the rise in mobilisation in the sector is the means and the end to improving circumstances. Without romanticising the power of social movements, past and present, there are some useful lessons to be drawn from their experience.
Their historical record demonstrates the power of unity, combining shop floor and community issues, as well as widespread political education in achieving and protecting important gains for their constituencies. So, for artists to see a marked difference in their livelihoods, they need to harness and build on the nascent movements.
This article was produced as part of a partnership between the Mail & Guardian and the Goethe-Institut, focusing on sustainability and the arts