South African actors say they have a bone to pick with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) over residuals paid to actors, television directors and others involved in the making of TV shows and movies.
They claim that actors in South Africa do not have rights to own their image or share in the profits of content distribution – like those across the rest of the globe.
The South African Guild of Actors say they believe they were given a fair hearing in parliament during their motivation for the adoption of the Performers Protection Amendment Bill.
Actors in South Africa have recently expressed dissatisfaction over residuals paid to them in the making of TV shows and movies.
The SA Guild of Actors, led by Jack Devnarain and Florence Masebe, went to parliament on Thursday on the matter.
Former star of the SABC soap opera Isidingo Jack Devnarain says this is part of the public submission phase where all stakeholders will have an opportunity to present their case before parliament. He says we believe we had a very fair hearing, appealing to the economic sense of the DTI, showing that if actors are able to change the law in this way, we will be able to change the economy in a much more beneficial way.
He says: “We will be able to engage with banking institutions and insurance institutions that actors have never been able to before because we earn as freelancers and we have never been able to engage in the economy in that way. We are hoping with this consideration on the table that actors might actually be able to participate in a more meaningful way.”
“This is now going to be a change to amend a very old apartheid-era Act, and we want to bring actor’s rights in line with our counterparts from around the world. Actors globally have a right to earn residuals every time the shows that they are on, whether it is on film or TV, are licenced, distributed and copied around the world.”
Devnarain says they are hoping to motivate through the DTI’s Parliamentary Portfolio Committee that actors should be allowed that right and that means changing the law.
