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Hundreds of people from the South African film and television industry protested outside parliament on Wednesday, calling on the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (dtic) to fix delays in its rebate system and meet with industry bodies.<\/p>\n
The South African Film and Television Production Incentive is a rebate programme managed by the dtic to support the local film and television industry.<\/p>\n
The Save SA Films Jobs Coalition says jobs have been lost and productions stalled because of delays in payments and backlogs in processing rebate applications.<\/p>\n
Last year, the dtic blamed the delays on \u201cfiscal constraints\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe South African film and television industry has an incredibly important role to promote our culture, to promote national dialogue, and also to bring in jobs,\u201d said writer and director Meg Rickards. \u201cWithout the dtic incentive, those jobs are not happening. It\u2019s just not financially feasible to shoot here anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Listen\/read: SA film industry under threat as Trump targets foreign productions [May 2025]<\/p>\n
Rickards, who has worked in the industry for 24 years, says she has never seen it in such a \u201cdire\u201d state.<\/p>\n
She said her production company completed a film in 2020 but was only paid out two years later by the dtic. To pay the film crew, her family had to borrow against their bond.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cWe nearly lost everything. It made us very scared to make another film,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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CONTINUE READING BELOW<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Wandile Molebatsi, deputy chair of the Independent Producers Organisation, read a memorandum of demands to three representatives of the Portfolio Committee for Trade, Industry and Competition.<\/p>\n
Demands included an urgent, in-person meeting with dtic leadership, including Minister Tau, and the establishment of working groups within 21 working days to develop short-and long-term interventions.<\/p>\n
Read:
Massive untapped potential for SA film industry [2021]
Concerns about funding incentives for film and TV productions in SA [2021]<\/p>\nThey called for adjudication committee meetings, which stopped without explanation in October 2023, according to Molebatsi, to be resumed.<\/p>\n
Other demands included an online portal to track applications, and an investigation into the dtic\u2019s mismanagement of the incentive scheme.<\/p>\n