Piracy is robbing South Africa’s film and music industry of millions of rand. While local actors and musicians are being crippled financially, organised crime syndicates are raking in big bucks by flooding the market with counterfeit DVDs and CDs.  

More than 80 percent of South Africa’s fake DVDs are sold in Gauteng and this costs the film industry an estimated 800-million rand a year. Last year alone, over a million fake DVDs, CDs and games were confiscated by law enforcers. Although there’s been a major increase in the number of seizures, authorities are struggling to keep up with the increasing volumes of pirated goods.

South Africa’s Oscar winning film, “Tsotsi”, has been exploited to the extent that the local crew has collectively lost a minimum of one million rand in royalties alone. Co-Producer, Paul Raleigh says the local film industry is bleeding on the inside.

Local filmmaker and actor, Leon Schuster agrees that the future existence of the local movie industry is being jeopardized because of piracy. His latest film, “Mama Jack” was set to become the highest grossing film of all time in South Africa – almost more than Titanic. But pirated copies flooded the market and undermined sales that could’ve made box office history. In this case, piracy impacted revenue streams by a value of about 10 million rand.

This week on Special Assignment, we show you South Africa’s number one piracy sales hotspot. We also accompany authorities as they clamp down on a home operator, who is accused of having sold pirate DVD’s and CD’s to under cover law enforcement agents.

We also speak to local musicians, Rebecca Malope and Mzwakhe Mbuli and follow them in their quest to fight the piracy war. Record companies say they’re losing several hundred million rand a year because of piracy.

Bleeding on the Inside is directed by Gillain de Gouveia and was filmed by Jan de Klerk and Byron Taylor.

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