The Producers' Alliance

GFC - Location workshop invite

2009-09-04T07:53:00.002+02:00

The Gauteng Film Commission in association with the Gauteng Film Partnership invites you to attend a workshop on location filming.

RSVP ASAP

Date: Monday, 7 September 2009

Time: 18:00

Venue: SCI-BONO

Parking: Use SCI-BONO underground parking on Miriam Makeba Street Opposite the SAB World of Beer. Kindly produce your invite to access parking

RSVP: seitisom@gautengfilm.org.za

Warm Regards

Seitiso Mogoshane
Locations Officer

Gauteng Film Commission

56 Main Street Johannesburg, 2108 South Africa
PO Box 61601 Marshalltown 2107,
Tel: +27 (0) 11 833 0409
Fax: +27 (0) 11 833 0282 / 0865055772

Cell: +27 (0) 83 608 4324

E-mail: seitisom@gautengfilm.org.za
Web: www.gautengfilm.org.za

Update on IP meeting with SABC

2009-08-19T17:59:00.003+02:00

Dear all,

Myself (Neil Brandt), Thandi and Rehad attended on behalf of the IP subcommittee. Apologies
given for Desiree and Pule.

SABC was represented by Nhalanhla Sibisi, Sabelo Silinga and Webster Mfebe.

SARRAL and SAMRO where there but did they did not really contribute. CWU was
also represented.

After much heated discussion the following has been agreed;

1) SABC will provide a written point by point response to the
commissioned IP reports final recommendations. We thought that this was the
point of this meeting but we never made it to any substantive issues as
discussion was primarily around process. This will be received by September
1st. The IP committee should do the same. I will do a first draft for
discussion.

2) We shall meet again on the 15th September to briefly respond to each
other's positions, but main purpose of this meeting will be to set the
agenda and "ringfence" the issues that will be the subject of an intensive 2
day workshop between the SABC and the IP subcommittee. I imagine this will
happen around the end of September. This will be critical, as the real meat
of what it means to share ownership will be fleshed out. SABC will insist
that all affected stakeholders will also participate in this meeting.

3) Out of this workshop we should have draft positions on the table
that will be put to the industry at an IP Indaba. It is my strong
recommendation that we utilize the resources that the GFC has to host an
industry Indaba to dovetail with this. I am recommending to the GFC that the
main focus of the INDABA (whether we like it or not they are going ahead so
lets make the best of it - currently planned for November) be IP and how
this relates to building a sustainable industry. This can work on a basic
training level for producers on IP, but more importantly also to use the
forum to bring all stakeholders together to negotiate a win-win situation
for the industry...ie, bring the DTI, CIPRO, SAMRO, NFVF, SABC, SASFED, IPO
ect to the table with pre planned solutions with a view to really once and
for all finding a way that we can work together seamlessly and unlock
value...

4) All the above based on the premise that SABC willing to contract out
of the Commissioning Exception. A parallel process should be undertaken in
which we tackle the long-term vision of changing the relevant laws.

Input welcomed.

Neil Brandt

Further Update on SABC Payment 17 August 2009

2009-08-19T17:59:00.001+02:00

Dear Producers,

Following our meeting with the SABC this morning and in response to the queries raised with them around verifications, please note that a special email has been set up and that your enquiries should be sent to finalverifications@sabc.co.za. The email address will be up and running tomorrow (Tuesday) from midday.

We have consolidated the SABC and TVIEC lists to form one list from which we will work moving forward.

Critical Issues for you as Producers:

1. You need to contact Mandy Branch (use the email address above) to ascertain where in the verification process you stand i.e. what is still outstanding that you need to get to the SABC in order to settle 100%? If this is not done, you will default to a 50% claim, with a further 90 days in which to provide the relevant information so that you can claim the balance owing to you. This has been confirmed by the SABC (one of the queries listed in our earlier mail to them).
2. Category 1 companies/payments have been granted an extension to 19 August 2009 for their submissions.
3. Please ensure that you obtain copies of the bank statements for the production periods. This is critical.
4. We’re awaiting a checklist of deliverables from the SABC which we will forward to you. This will allow you to “tick boxes” against production deliverables so that verification is not further frustrated by a “technicality” e.g. music cue sheets, assets, etc
5. We’re awaiting an SABC revert regarding the date that the invoices must carry (SAP-related issue). We will share this with you as soon as we have word.
6. Interest will be paid, but will be dealt with as a separate issue and invoice.
7. Royalties and repeats will be dealt with separately but is on the agenda.
8. We have asked that the one-on-one meetings with Mvuso and Henk be provisionally rescheduled from the 22nd of August to the 29th of August. We await confirmation of this date. We will inform you, within the next few days, of the process for the scheduling of these meetings.

Thanks,
Levern Engel

TVIEC slogans

2009-08-19T17:58:00.001+02:00

Dear All TV Industry colleagues

Since the fantastic marches in JHB and Cape Town we have held back from calling any direct action. With the imminent threat that will see 70% reduction in spend on commissioning we have no option to keep up the pressure on the SABC to make an appropriate application for a short term finance plan to the DOC/ Treasury who if accepted will put it to parliament. This will only happen if we are able to bring to the attention of the public and their elected representatives the very real consequences of such a cut. We cannot accept our local content quota’s being met by SA corporate funding who then determine who tells our stories and how our stories are told. Our rallying call for a plurality and diversity of voice has to be defended.

To this end we have some planned activity for next week that we need to build support for - get people out to attend. In addition we are planning action for the following week which we need assistance to pull off.

Furthermore Cape Town need to plan an action outside parliament – and attend the interviews for the SABC Board we need to send a message through our presence that they are being watched.

Joburg TVIEC protest action comm. meeting at Atlas Studio Thursday 20th August 4 pm sharp boardroom – this is a task orientated meeting. Please attend if you can help.

Some ideas for slogans

Bail Out Now

for SABCs 24 million viewers

Bail Out for SABC or Bail Out of Viewers

SABC is Public Service that requires support

Advertising Funded Programmes is not the answer

Editorial integrity under threat by Advertising Programmes

Only public funding can guarantee editorial integrity

A CEO for SABC who is a champion of local story telling

We need ideas for slogans.

Rehad Desai

TVIEC guerrilla theatre protest

2009-08-19T17:57:00.002+02:00

Hi All

The TVIEC is organising a guerrilla theatre protest action at SABC to keep the pressure on. The plan is to depict the death of local stories and local content. Media will be invited to document the action and to interview picketers.

The feeling is that it would be great if Cape Town organised something similar. I cannot do any organising as I am staying out of town and do not have reliable e-mail or cell phone contact.

I can supply the data base of people interested in the action of the TVIEC and who attended the last picket in Cape Town to whoever is willing to take the task on. E-mail me at: action@kali.co.za

all the best

Kali

OUR CONTACT: tvcrisis@gmail.com

This letter is written on behalf of the TVIEC (Television Industry Emergency Coalition) which consists of: IPO (Independent Producers Organization), SASFED (South African Screen Federation), TPA (The Producers Alliance), DFA (Documentary Filmmakers Association), WGSA (Writers Guild of South Africa) as well as the CWU (Creative Workers Union).

Producer Seminar with Angus Finney in Johannesburg

2009-08-19T17:57:00.001+02:00

The NFVF has been running a high level producer course led by Angus Finney and Women of the Sun (WoS) have now obtained Finney's services to share some of his secrets in this very special once off Seminar.
Date: Thurs, 20 August 2009
Venue: Atlas Studios
ime: 9:30am for 10:00am
Cost: Women R100, Men R150
RSVP: with Eve 072 143 1825 / info@wos.org.za

Producers who are aiming to make films for both local and international audiences should not miss this rare chance to participate and learn about the business of film from one of the world's experts.

Angus Finney has been MD of Renaissance Films, a UK-based development, production, financing and sales company a leading international sales company, has executive produced many films incl. Neil Armfield’s CANDY staring Heath Legder (Official Selection, Berlin 2006). And now runs London's premier film finance market, the PFM. Finney has been involved in the raising of more than $120m towards independent film production over the past decade.

Participants should realise that the value of the seminar is made even more worthwhile by the notes/MBA style course pack, which is worth the fee even before they have benefited from the actual seminar.

WoS seminars are aimed particularly to empower women filmmakers, bringing our members together to learn and network, but we encourage all producers both female and male and of all levels to attend.

The Seminar
· The Film Value Chain
· Creative material selection
· Project Management
· Financial Packaging Business models and business plan

An MBA style pack will also be available to the attendees. This will cover a range of key issues on international film business.

The Participants

This seminar is aimed at SA producers of:
· local Film & television product drama and documentary;
· international product, that could find TV distribution/multi platforms in key territories beyond SA/Africa, and
· international feature films (including documentaries that cross over to theatrical) that require non-SA financing for distribution and exploitation on a world-wide basis.

Booking Details
Pay at the door or to:
Women of the Sun
Bank: Nedbank,
Branch: Killarney
Acc no. 1916 074804

Entertainment law seminars

2009-08-19T17:56:00.004+02:00

The BLA Legal Education Centre will be hosting a series of Entertainment Law seminars in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
To register for a seminar contact Keke on 011 403 0802

Johannesburg seminar will be on the 21st August
Cape Town seminar will be on the 28th August
Durban seminar will be on the 11th September

Topics to be covered are:

The overview of the film making process
Legal aspects relating to film
Music industry
Music rights

Private eye at SABC offices

2009-08-19T17:56:00.003+02:00

Officials from the auditor-general’s office have set up shop at the SABC’s headquarters in Auckland Park to investigate allegations of widespread mismanagement and corruption. by Buddy Naidu
A team of investigators has occupied the broadcaster’s fourth-floor offices since last Monday after being ordered by Parliament’s portfolio committee to probe the litany of allegations.

The financial and managerial crisis at the organisation eventually saw the previous board dissolved in June. Now the auditor-general’s office has three months to investigate claims made by:

# The former board and its chair Kanyisiwe Mkonza against management;

# Unions, who compiled a dossier alleging a litany of improprieties, corruption and the flouting of fiduciary duties by both the board and management;

# Senior members of management as well as former CEO Dali Mpofu against the board; and

# The interim board and the portfolio committee.

SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said the investigators were receiving “full co-operation” from management, with staff being encouraged to participate.

“Staff and anyone with information are encouraged to interact with them via a special e-mail account that has been set up, while boxes have been allocated for those who wish to provide information anonymously,” he said.

He said the probe was expected to last until the end of this month, after which a report would be tabled before the communications committee in Parliament.

A spokesman for the Auditor-General, Africa Boso, said he was unable to comment on the investigations.

In March, the SABC announced pre-tax losses of under R800-million and it has since gone cap in hand to government for a R2.4-billion bailout.

Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda also announced, soon after the dissolution of the board, plans to create a new funding model for the broadcaster.

Nyanda told Parliament that he had approached Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan to form a team to “effect the turnaround”.

He also announced a proposal to radically increase state funding for the SABC.

At present, the broadcaster’s advertising revenues account for about 80%, with the state contributing only 2% and the rest coming from licence fees.

This week Nyanda announced an 11% licence tariff increase — from R225 to R250 — effective as from the beginning of this month.

http://www.thetimes.co.za

Private SABC is urged

2009-08-19T17:56:00.001+02:00

The Democratic Alliance has called for the SABC to be privatised. DA spokesperson Niekie van den Berg said yesterday that the public broadcaster had decided that to cut costs it would no longer commission any new local content.
But the Television Industry Emergency Coalition warned that this decision would effectively kill the local television industry, with 80000 crew and cast losing their jobs, among other things.

The DA welcomed the SABC’s attempts at cost- cutting, but said the broadcaster’s almost R1billion losses were largely as a result of internal financial mismanagement and mass fruitless and wasteful spending.

“An example of worrying trends at the SABC includes the fact that despite the corporation’s dismal performance, and while being on paid suspension for most of the year, suspended CEO Dali Mpofu received a R2,1million bonus during 2008, 47,3percent higher than the previous year’s R1,4million.

“Mpofu’s salary was also increased by 19,7percent to R4,5million.

“He was also paid out more than R6,5million for the remainder of his contract after being refused reinstatement,” Van den Berg said.

Another disconcerting fact was that the SABC’s biggest debtor was national and provincial government, which owed it over R300million in advertising fees. The money is for airtime sales and outdoor broadcast ventures. – Sapa

http://www.sowetan.co.za

SABC cancels local productions

2009-08-19T17:55:00.001+02:00

The Television Industry Emergency Coalition (TVIEC) is raising a red flag in alarm at the proposal by the SABC to freeze, cancel and delay various local productions in order to cut costs.
As per the SABC’s 2008 Request for Proposals (RFPs) from the independent production sector, we have been informed that only 12 out of the 47 productions due to have been incepted in April 2009 will be going ahead this year. The balance will be delayed or cancelled. There will be no 2009 RFPs for production in 2010. Furthermore, numerous existing/renewable contracts have been postponed or deferred.

This appears to be the turn-around plan that has been proposed to the interim board. If implemented, the move will save the SABC an estimated R500-million over the next year. Instead of the SABC creating a viable new business plan, the independent production sector will end up taking the hit for the broadcaster’s internal mismanagement. While the SABC will appear to have a quick turn-around, the impact has deep consequences that the industry, viewers, and next board will have to face:

Companies will close and many will find themselves in debt and potentially liquidated as they had geared for the anticipated annual work flow. Only a very few big production companies with long running soaps will be able to survive.

The substantial investment made by SABC in training and developing new entrants in the industry will be lost – people will have to find other employment.

Key creative talent will migrate and be lost. This is no small issue – producers, writers and directors take years to develop and are pivotal to production success.

Suppliers and facilities will be forced to sell off equipment – most likely outside of the country – which will leave the local industry with an increasingly smaller pool of suppliers, pushing up prices etcetera.

The SABC will enter into a schedule of repeats (which has already started) even in prime time slots, thus directly affecting audiences and very likely future revenue. As viewers decrease, so do advertising rates. Surely this must also have serious effect on the SABC meeting its ICASA requirements – but no reliable quota statistics are forthcoming from either the broadcaster or the regulator. Furthermore, the TVIEC is concerned about how and when repeat fees will be paid – given the fact that final payments have still not been made on some of the properties that are now going to be repeated!

What happens to the SABC staff employed to commission, oversee and work on the many productions that will be cancelled and deferred? Will they be retrenched as part of the cost saving exercise too?

In addition we are being informed that the SABC intends to “bulk commission” local programming to further reduce costs. While we can see that this may provide some savings, we highlight that it will only serve to grow a handful of production companies that have capacity to manage bulk. These are mainly established facility owner/producer companies and will most likely advantage the already advantaged. We believe this goes against the very spirit of the SABC’s commitment to diversity and developing the industry – as well as ICASA’s recommendations. Bulk commissioning is a dangerous notion of cost savings as it is not applicable to all genres (eg drama or documentary) and will thus start to shape the type of content the SABC puts on air – cheap and studio-based. It is also open to abuse and inappropriate commissioning. We are concerned that there are already discussions on bulk commissioning taking place with large facility/producer companies, and that open and fair tender will by bypassed.

We believe that an attempt to turn the SABC around by cutting their key product – programming – will cause irreparable damage to the independent production sector and to the SABC’s credibility. In our view this can be likened to an airline making a saving by buying less fuel. Cost savings must be made from areas of fat or that are non-core to the SABC’s business. Programming is at the core of their offering to viewers. We strongly oppose this process.

We are of the view that the SABC should be looking at a combination of selling off non-core assets, downscaling internal units that have been overstaffed, cutting back on unnecessary spending in non-program areas and applying for funding in the form of a bail-out or a loan whilst implementing long term cost savings within its business models.

The TVIEC will continue to campaign. We will lobby all stakeholders and mobilize public opinion for a short term policy intervention which will require Treasury to allocate additional budget to the SABC in 2009 so that its anticipated schedule of local content can be produced.

OUR CONTACT: tvcrisis@gmail.com

This letter is written on behalf of the TVIEC (Television Industry Emergency Coalition) which consists of: IPO (Independent Producers Organization), SASFED (South African Screen Federation), TPA (The Producers Alliance), DFA (Documentary Filmmakers Association), WGSA (Writers Guild of South Africa) as well as the CWU (Creative Workers Union).

At the August 4 mass meeting of the TVIEC, the steering committee reported back on our meetings and dealings with the minister, SABC operations and the SABC interim board. The protest march and subsequent lobbies have given us a powerful voice – but the struggle for a new SABC has only just begun.

As was reported at that meeting, the SABC seems intent on slashing local production over the next year as a means of saving money. See the press release at the end of this document for our position on these proposed measures.

Our industry is facing yet another very serious crisis and we have decided that we have no option but to continue with our protest action strategy.

Next Protest Action

Within the next few weeks the TVIEC will be staging a guerrilla theatre protest action at SABC. This will be a mediation and picket, not a mass protest action. The plan is to stage industrial theatre that depicts the death of local stories and local content. Media will be invited to document the action and to interview picketers. We need to keep the pressure on.

The plan is to stage similar protests regularly after this. We are urgently calling on TVIEC members to join us. Bring us ideas for protest pieces and help the protest committee stage these. We need volunteers to join us on 20 August for a meeting to plan the protest action.

Writers and actors, express your outrage at the SABC’s killing off of local content. We need passionate individuals to join the pickets and speak to the media about their concerns. Contact Charl on 082-6813680 if you can help.

As the protests continue, the thrust will increasingly be on job losses. Actors, writers, service providers and crew need to come forward and tell their stories. The focus will also be on viewers. Soon SABC will be serving us a diet of repeats. Do you have any ideas on how to engage with the issue of viewers? Let us know.

Reporting Back: A New System

It is proving difficult to effectively report back to TVIEC members and affiliates on the myriad meetings and lobbies that we are engaged in – such as nominations for the new SABC board and issues of payment and operations at SABC.

We are proposing that each member body of the TVIEC nominates two to four people that can meet with us for report backs. They will then report back to their members. Please can you nominate members and let us know by mailing us on tvcrisis@gmail.com

Mpofu gets R12m to leave SABC

2009-08-19T17:54:00.000+02:00

Former SABC boss Dali Mpofu has ended his R20-million legal dispute with the broadcaster and will pocket R12-million for his troubles. by Buddy Naidu
Mpofu and the SABC’s interim chairman, Irene Charnley, announced at a rather jovial news conference on Friday that they had reached an “amicable agreement” whereby he will drop his legal case for wrongful dismissal against the broadcaster.

The two said “ongoing costly legal battles are not in the interests of public broadcasting”.

Mpofu also signed a restraint-of-trade agreement valid for 18 months.

He has already been paid R6.7-million, or the remainder of his contract, after his axing. He will pocket a further R900000 as part of his package, and the Department of Communications will pay him R4.4-million as part of the restraint-of- trade deal. As part of the agreement, signed to “safeguard the SABC’s protectable interests”, Mpofu will be prevented from working for any entity in competition with the broadcaster, even as a consultant. He will also receive R2.1- million for legal fees he incurred during his battle with the former board, which initially suspended and then axed him early last year.

Charnley said the scrap between Mpofu and the previous board, which was dissolved in June, had cost the broadcaster R4.8-million in legal fees alone.

A jovial Mpofu said he was relieved the saga was over and insisted he had no intention of applying for his old job, which is advertised in national newspapers today.

“Fairness, in principle, was what I was fighting for,” Mpofu said.

He maintained that his tenure was a “success” — saying his record “speaks for itself” — and praised his senior management team for their work.

“I’ve no regrets. .. people will see the kind of contribution we’ve made as a collective.”

He also took a dig at the former board, saying he paid no heed to their attempts to publicly discredit him. “(I) don’t worry about people who are ignorant about how the SABC functions.”

DA spokesman on communications Niekie van den Berg said it was ridiculous that Mpofu could walk away with a R12-million payment when his inability to manage the state broadcaster led to its financial crisis. “I hope this is a lesson for the ANC as Mpofu was a political appointment.”

http://www.thetimes.co.za

Tri – Continental Film Festival 2009

2009-08-11T11:02:00.002+02:00

Selection is up on the website with trailers

Screening schedule to follow this week.

It doesn’t get much better than this

Thanks
Rehad Desai

SABC - PRODUCTION INSURANCE - An industry objection 5.8.09

2009-08-06T11:33:00.001+02:00

Production insurance is an absolute necessity for risk management of any production.

Throughout the world Film and TV productions are financed with a simple proviso that the production will have FPI (Film Producers Insurance), which is a standard line item in any budget. There are only a handful of insurers that specialise in this;

The SABC insists that they will provide the insurance cover for any SABC commissioned production directly through their own supplier who offers them bulk discounts.

The requirement by the SABC that producers must accept insurance through the SABC’s insurers is extremely problematic for the production sector because there is a direct conflict of interest in risk management. (Note this was implemented approx 2 years ago and has never been needed in the past as contracts required producers to take appropriate FPI cover)

Producers sign an SABC contract that we accept all risk and that we will deliver on time, within budget, etc. However we have no control over the insurance which is managed by the SABC – so if claims are not paid on time, or the SABC defaults on a payment and thus leaves the producers uninsured – the producer de facto carries double risk. It is the producer who has to carry the burden and risk with no recourse to the insurer or SABC

An Example of this is recently a well respected production company has been sued by a vehicle rental company as the SABC insurance has not paid a claim. The producer had to sign personal surety and is thus now personally liable.

As it currently stands, the producer cannot elect to use an alternative insurer and receive better cover or a more competitive service. As the SABC has made itself the “processor” or “conduit” for any claims, the producer carries the risk whilst the SABC wrangles with the insurer. The producer once again is at risk and has no control.

The SABC in many instances may not have any incentive to help process a claim on behalf of a producer, their employees and/or contractors as the SABC’s overall discounted insurance arrangement could be adversely affected by any such claim and more importantly, the SABC has not personally suffered any loss. It should be noted that the SABC’s current Terms of Trade have several onerous indemnities to avert any risk which the SABC may be exposed to and accordingly the IPO is of the view that there is a low risk to the SABC.

Also producers sign all contracts with cast, crew and suppliers. In the event that the SABC defaults on insurance – the producer is 100% liable to all its contractual obligations and thus sue-able. So if a person is hurt on our set, we are liable. If the SABC insurance defaults – we have no recourse as we are not the primary holder of the policy.

When the SABC insurance office does not manage paperwork or flow, we are vulnerable – it is an individual’s word that they submitted, etc. It is untenable to have a hands-off relationship with the insurer.

For as long as the risk lies with the producer, the more significant the risk, the more prejudicial the possible outcome to the producer in the event of non-payment of a claim.

Also, there is a concern around turnaround time from submission of claim to payment of such claim. Some companies have waited for over a year for payment (EG: Moja is currently awaiting payment for an incident that occurred on 10 October 2008. “We filed a claim that day. The SABC was completely non-responsive – not a word, not a mail. We eventually dealt directly with the insurance company. We are still awaiting payment, but there has been some communication this week.”)

The nature of production is that we often need to make last minute changes to schedules to accommodate availability of actors, location problems, weather etc. This requires an extremely flexible and personal relationship with an insurer based on trust and personal track record.

Professional producers build relationships with insurers that enable them to get production matters covered instantly, sometimes in the middle of the night. Claims are also processed within particular parameters which producers have managed to negotiate to minimise their risk and exposure. And if a chosen insurer does not meet such needs, they can be changed.

Managing ones risk is a very personal choice.

Even the banks are not allowed to force a homeowner to use their insurer when they lend you money to buy a house. They can insist you have adequate cover – but they cannot force you to take their cover.

We believe the current approach by the SABC is anti-competitive. However, it has not been our intention to create a forum for conflict – in fact we have now tried to make the SABC insurance work for 2 years. But this has just reaffirmed for us the dangers of the current situation

If the SABC is to insist on its insurers being used, then it should similarly be prepared to assume the risk in the case where a claim is not met within a reasonable time period - 3 months. Also, the SABC must then not request producers to accept all risk for delivery. However, the SABC will argue that it has no control over the production and cannot accept the risk. Similarly, producers will argue that they have no control over the claims procedure and more importantly, if claims are run through the SABC and any administrative error occurs, then an insurer may repudiate a claim and the producer may be liable for the risk where there is a fault on the part of the SABC. This will entail unnecessary, costly and protracted litigation to try to resolve that issue. This creates an untenable situation for all.

It is not only about money and risk but about service levels as well. Producers are often able to secure and make arrangements quickly and efficiently and deal with the claims on particular merits where a globular policy can never provide the same level of satisfaction. This is also a key aspect of insurance arrangements.

As such we request that this matter be discussed at the highest levels as a matter of urgency and that we be allowed to manage our own risk.

NOTE: We are not averse to the SABC having a selection of insurers that are preferential service providers to SABC at a competitive rate and that producers may chose any one of them at such rate This allows us to keep them competitive and responsive. But we must also be allowed to choose our own insurer and pay in any difference in rate.

An example of increased risk to prod co’s.

One of our members had 2 productions for which insurance was provided by SABC. In both cases, they had not received any confirmation or any other documentation from SABC confirming that they were covered.

In one instance, they requested if a presenter had to go for a medical test. The SABC office was unable to help, and instead they referred the prod co to the underwriter, GIB Insurance. While talking to GIB the prod co found out that even though they had submitted their Insurance form to SABC weeks prior, the insurance company had not received any information, and therefore could not confirm that the production was covered.

Note: We believe the micro management with regards things like insurance and how the independent producer manages his risks undermines the producer’s independent status and could lead an inexperienced producer unwittingly to reckless trading.

RESIDENCE DU FESTIVAL - DEAD LINE FOR APPLICATION

2009-08-06T10:40:00.000+02:00

Every year, the Festival de Cannes Residence welcomes 12 young filmmakers from all over the world who are working on their first or second feature film. A jury selects 6 candidates for each of the two four-and-a-half-month sessions per year.

The candidates are selected on the strength of the short films, or the 1st feature, that they have already directed as well as on their planned feature and the reasons why they wish to participate in the Residence’s programme.

The selection for the next session (March 1st – July 15th 2010) will take place from:

Final date for applications: September 15th 2009 (arrival date)
Final Jury selection date: December 9th 2009

Please consult our web site:

Please do not hesitate to contact us for any further details (Tel.:+33 (0)1 53 59 61 20 / residence@festival-cannes.fr).

Sincerely yours,

Georges Goldenstern
Director

CWU ELEVATES STRIKE AGAINST STUBBORN SABC

2009-07-23T13:37:00.002+02:00

CWU PRESS RELEASE 23/07/2009

Communication Workers Union and its members are to embark on a second phase of the protected strike action against the SABC as a result of the Public Broadcaster’s management’s failure respond favorably to the union’s demands.

As indicated to the SABC management on the 10th July 2009, CWU is not prepared to accept anything less than the 12.2% salary increment as agreed upon by parties in the multi-term agreement. CWU still maintain that its members and workers in general cannot be expected to be the ones hard hit by the mismanagement and misappropriation of funds by the management.

The rescue request made by the SABC of 2billion rands from government cannot exclude rescuing itself from preventing the current strike by ensuring that the SABC respect and adhere to the signed agreement.

CWU believe that the prioritization of cost cutting as embarked upon by the SABC should among others be aimed at making it possible among others to implement the multi-term agreement to ensure the much needed stability within the organization. In prioritizing, the SABC must affirmatively consider the “Loyalty Begins At Home” principle.

The CWU National Working Committee meeting that will be held on the 24th July 2009, will among others discuss a more effective strike action program against the SABC, its forms and durations, and these will include among others; “Go Slows”; Work-to-rule”; Picketing and National “Stay-Away’s” The SABC strike will be bolstered by the impending strike against Telkom SA and the possibility of a “Secondary Strike” of all CWU members in the ICT Sector.

The SABC need to seriously consider implementing the 12.2% or brace itself up for a crippling “Rolling Mass Action”, as our members’ determination and anger is nearing explosive levels.

For any queries, please contact

Gallant Roberts
General Secretary
Communication Workers Union
082 692 9777
gallantr@cwu.org.za

CWU - COMMUNICATION WORKERS UNION
No. 29 Rissik Street
P O Box 10248
Cnr Rissik and Fox Street, Johannesburg, 2000
Tel: (011) 838 8188
E-mail: reception@cwu.org.za
Fax: (011) 838 8727
Internet: www.cwu.org.za/Index.htm

SAFTAS Fees Wavered for 2010

2009-07-23T13:33:00.000+02:00

SAFTAS Fees Wavered for 2010

At the meeting held last week, it was agreed that the SAFTAS committee would waiver the entry fees for the up coming SAFTAS on condition that industry represented by SASFED formalise a request.

An official letter has since been received by Eddie and in accordance, the fees have been waivered.

Please note that an email/newsletter will be circulated during the day on Thursday 23rd to all on our databases, however I ask that you also take up this call to inform your organisations in order to further the message.

As the coordination team, we have responded by extending the entry date by two weeks giving extra time to all potential entrants. We will make it our top priority to inform as many production companies as we can, individually.

Also as a reminder, please supply us with names of potential judges by Friday as we need to finalise the list in the coming days.

Your cooperation is appreciated and I will keep you updated on the progress.

Kind Regards

Azania Muendane

Marketing Manager (Acting)

National Film & Video Foundation

87 Central Street, Houghton. JHB 2198

T - +2711 483 0880

C - +2779 495 9268

F - 086 613 3590 / 011 483 0881

azaniam@nfvf.co.za

www.nfvf.co.za

SABC CLAIMS CASH FROM UNPAID PRODUCERS

2009-07-23T09:53:00.001+02:00

TVIEC PRESS RELEASE

SABC CLAIMS CASH FROM UNPAID PRODUCERS

Despite some erratic payments at the end of June 2009, SABC still owes independent TV producers tens of millions of rands for shows that have already been broadcast. And payments of millions of rands more are being delayed for months on end because of the SABC’s controversial asset control system. As part of that system, seemingly random fines of up to R100 000 are being imposed on producers for alleged lost assets.

The commissioning process is mired in red tape – nowhere more so than the signing off of a completed production. One aspect of this sign-off is assets. When a production company creates a series for SABC, everything that is bought for the production – sets, props, wardrobe, dressing and the like – becomes a SABC asset. At the end of the season the producer – who has invariably had to store these assets at their own cost or, more recently, leave them at an insecure SABC facility – must account for them. Down to the last sock, assets must be ticked off against a ledger of acquisitions. SABC appears to have only one Asset Controller covering all of their commissioned productions, a Ms Lerato Thage.

It can take months or even years for the SABC’s Asset Controller to get to checking a production’s assets. Until she does so, final payment for that production is withheld. Some production companies have been waiting for longer than a year and up to two years for this to happen.
Now production companies are also facing bizarre claims that vast amounts of assets are missing when the controller eventually does her checks. The industry has gone so far as to photograph assets in order to prove that they are accounted for – but SABC seems unwilling to engage over the issue. They seem intent on witholding money from production houses as a matter of course.

This may seem like a trivial issue, but it is causing even further delays and crises in outstanding payments to the industry – it is clearly a ruse to alleviate the SABC’s cashflow crisis at the cost of the independent production sector. The TVIEC demands honest, fair and efficient terms of trade with the national broadcaster.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: tvcrisis@gmail.com

This press release is written on behalf of the TVIEC (Television Industry Emergency Coalition) which consists of: IPO (Independent Producers Organization), SASFED (South African Screen Federation), TPA (The Producers Alliance), DFA (Documentary Filmmakers Association), WGSA (Writers Guild of South Africa) as well as the CWU (Creative Workers Union).

SOS working group: petition now live, updated letter to Minister

2009-07-18T13:39:00.002+02:00

Hello there

Our petition re: SABC Board nominations is now llive. The url address is below.... Do go and place your signatures.

To: South African Parliament

Nominations for the new permanent SABC Board

The “Save our SABC” Campaign believes it is critical that the general public feels ownership of the SABC. It is our SABC. One of the most important ways for us to feel this ownership and for the general public to get actively involved is to put forward names for the Board.

We note that the invitation for nominations has been released and the deadline has been set for the end of this month - 31 July 2009. Further we note that small notices have been placed in the supplementary sections of the Mail&Guardian, Star, Sunday Times and Rapport newspapers.

The Coalition is concerned for two reasons. Firstly, we believe that the nomination period is extremely tight and secondly we believe that the dissemination process as regards notifying the public re: the nomination process is wholly insufficient.

To ensure that this critical process is taken forward in a positive and constructive way the Coalition proposes the following:

- That the nomination process if possible be extended to the end of August 2009.
- That Parliament immediately set aside a budget to ensure that notices are carried in the main body sections of all key national and provincial newspapers – and particularly in newspapers read by ordinary South Africans such as the Daily Sun.
- That public service announcements are carried on all free-to-air channels including all SABC channels and e.TV.
- That public service announcements are carried on all community radio stations and also in community publications.
- That Government Communication Information System (GCIS) and statutory bodies such as the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) are creatively utilised to ensure that nomination notices are further disseminated.

As civil society organisations we also promise, from our side, that we will use our own networks to ensure maximum dissemination of this important information.

Also, further to this public nomination process, we believe there needs to be maximum transparency to ensure maximum public confidence in the nomination and selection process. We have the following suggestions:

- That the names of nominators and nominees are made public through the Parliamentary website and other accessible websites.
- That all CVs of short-listed nominees are housed on the Parliamentary website and other accessible websites for public scrutiny.
- That all interviews are televised and put on free-to-air radio and television channels at times when the majority of people are watching.
- Finally, that MPs give reasons for their choices as regards their final shortlist.

SIGN THE PETITION HERE

Warm regards

Kate Skinner
SOS

Interim Board problems and a way forward for the new permanent Board

2009-07-09T09:53:00.000+02:00

Save our SABC: Reclaiming our Public Broadcaster

Interim Board problems and a way forward for the new permanent Board

The “Save our SABC” (SOS) Coalition believes it is unfortunate that the process around the selection of the new interim Board has become so fraught. During Parliamentary debates on the Broadcasting Amendment Bill, SOS repeatedly stated that criteria were needed for the interim Board. In Parliamentary hearings we in fact put forward a number of criteria including the fact that the interim Board should include a corporate governance expert, a financial expert, a broadcasting attorney or academic and representatives from labour and civil society organizations. Despite our best lobbying efforts however Parliament ignored this advice. No criteria were in fact included in the final legislation.

Also, at the time, various SOS members expressed their discomfort around the fact that the selection of the interim board was not a public process. We however were convinced by Parliament that because of the urgency of putting the interim Board in place and the fact that the interim Board would sit for a limited period only (i.e. a maximum of six months) we should forego a public process.

Given the context of no public process and no criteria, we had hoped that Parliament, as representative of the public, would be particularly mindful of the enormity of their task and would have sought to choose board members as a collective with both “hard” technical skills (including corporate governance, financial management and broadcasting expertise) but also a collective of people broadly acceptable to society at large including important constituency groupings and other political parties. It seems however that Parliament did not succeed in its duties here. Unfortunately the interim board as a collective does not enjoy this broad-based support. As Cosatu and the Young Communist League have argued the Board in particular lacks a labour perspective.

The issue is how to move forward from here. SOS believes that a number of lessons need to be learnt from this experience, the most important being that the SABC needs to be collectively owned and supported by its audiences it broadcasts. The selection of SABC boards needs to reflect this both in terms of process and composition. The process for the selection of the permanent SABC Board needs to start now. To gain public confidence SOS reiterates the importance of maximum public participation and maximum transparency.

In terms of maximum public participation, the call for SABC Board nominations need to be widely publicised (not only on tiny postage stamp adverts in newspapers!) but on full page adverts and on all stations on the national broadcaster. Further, the process of interviewing potential candidates for the Board needs to be on primetime television and radio slots with the public being encouraged to send in their questions. And in terms of transparency and public accountability - the names of nominators and nominees needs to be made public as well as the CVs of the nominees. Finally, to conclude the process, Parliamentarians need to put forward reasons why they selected a particular grouping of board members and how these board members fulfill both skills and representativity criteria as outlined in the Broadcasting Act. We believe an impeccable, transparent and public process will go along way to starting to right the myriad of problems plaguing our national broadcaster.

SABC workers set to down tools

2009-07-09T09:49:00.000+02:00

Mail & Guardian Online

Business | Labour

SABC workers set to down tools
JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA Jul 08 2009 09:27

Hundreds of South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) workers are expected to down tools during lunchtime on Wednesday over a wage dispute.

While the Media Workers' Association of South Africa earlier said it was expecting all of its 600 workers to take part, it is understood scores more disgruntled employees will turn out.

The Communication Workers' Union also said it expected hundreds to join. While the third labour union, the Broadcast, Electronic, Media and Allied Workers' Union, said it would act in solidarity with the other unions.

The public broadcaster has been dogged by controversy for several months due to what the unions say is the misuse of millions of rand.

According to reports, the SABC has requested a R2-billion bailout from the government

In a move to alleviate the crisis, the corporation has cut the salaries of several employees and restructured the rates of several news and current affairs presenters.

In an attempt to woo disgruntled employees, the unions on Tuesday posted notices at the entrances to the radio and TV centres to attract a good showing for the lunchtime picket. (Should SASFED and affiliated organisations show solidarity ?)

But it remains to be seen whether the SABC's freelance staff participate, as some fear not having their contracts renewed or not being scheduled for news and other programming.

The unions went to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration when the SABC revised a 12,2% multi-term pay offer it was supposed to have implemented in April, to 8,5%.

The labour court in Johannesburg dismissed a bid by the SABC last week to stop its workers from striking.

To further exacerbate the situation, the unions have warned that if the SABC does not budge, even after Wednesday's action, they will stay away completely, starting on July 13. -- Sapa

PRESS RELEASE : EMBATTLED TV INDUSTRY TO MEET COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER

2009-07-06T00:06:00.003+02:00

1 July 2009

PRESS RELEASE

EMBATTLED TV INDUSTRY TO MEET COMMUNICATIONS MINISTER

While the nation’s attention is focused on the mud slinging and blame shifting that has been unfolding in parliament between the SABC’s dissolving board and senior management, the harsh reality is that production companies are continuing to haemorrhage as we lay off staff due to the ongoing non-payment by the public broadcaster.

The TVIEC will be meeting with Communications Minister Nyanda on Friday 3 July. We shall be providing the minister with insight into the realities on the ground facing the television industry and also be addressing the false information supplied by the SABC and the dangers that such misinformation poses to the thousands of jobs that make up the production sector.

On June 4 the TVIEC, who make all local TV content for the SABC [except for the news and sport] marched to SABC headquarters to highlight a crisis of national importance. This march was prompted by the simple fact that the SABC owes us (independent producers, actors, writers, directors, technical crew) millions of rands for work already done or in production. We were met with platitudes from the senior executive about working together through the crisis and promises of weekly meetings to resolve the crisis.

Our industry is still owed millions of rands and, a month on, there is little or no communication at all from SABC’s senior management.

In the midst of this long-running crisis, not a single board member or executive has accepted accountability for this mess. Instead they play a blame game. They gave themselves fat bonuses and continue to take home large monthly pay cheques. Worst of all, individuals on the board and the executive continue to lobby for positions. They have misread the mood of the country and have ignored President’s Zuma’s call for accountability of public servants. The present SABC cannot be trusted to save itself. We are calling for urgent action by the imminent interim board to lance the rot.

The TVIEC is heartened by the announcement of the Minister setting up a Ministerial Task Team looking broadly at broadcasting policy and legislation issues and shall be seeking to have representation on this team. We believe the failings of our public broadcaster are endemic and require fundamental review and correction.

A RESPONSE TO THE SABC’S MISINFORMATION

The SABC has attempted to mislead the public and the government by stating that their crisis is a result of the global economic recession and downturn in ad spend. This is a dangerous lie.

Anyone analysing the SABC’s annual financial reports (which have clearly been designed to make that task difficult) will quickly see that most of the SABC’s loss of revenue is entirely self-inflicted. The national broadcaster lost substantial sports sponsorships partly because it lost lucrative sports rights, but allegations also point to a turf war between its internal sports department and its sales department. The result of this mismanagement of sports revenue is a larger contributing factor than the economic recession.

Moreover, the SABC has mismanaged advertising rates and relationships as well as commitments resulting in significant refunds to advertisers.

Surprisingly for an institution of its size, it is also mismanaging revenue collections. To blame the loss of revenue on a downturn in advertising spend is misleading. Why are the other broadcasters not facing this crisis?

The SABC’s financial crisis is not merely a story of lost revenue. This is also a story of an organization that spends money recklessly with no concern for its core business – serving the public.

Perhaps an anecdote best represents this disregard for financial management: The SABC, eTV and DSTV all source foreign TV programmes from an annual four day jamboree in Hollywood, USA. DSTV sends three or four of its managers there to source content for 21 channels. The SABC sends more than 20 people there to source less than 30% of its content for three channels. Shockingly, even board members have attended this market over the last five years.

While anecdotes of board-endorsed profligacy abound, the other substantially mismanaged cost drivers include news and an increase in management staff.

The cost of news has increased substantially with no increase in news output for South African viewers nor an increase in the quality of coverage. Many costs can be attributed to vanity projects which deliver neither value for money nor adherence to license conditions. The SABC arrogantly walked away from its news offering on the DSTV platform to viewers across the continent for which it was paid R20-million per annum. Instead, it chose to create an expensive (reportedly more than R200-million per annum) 24-hour news service on the Vivid platform that has few, if any, viewers.

Over the last five years the SABC has substantially increased the headcount of its middle managers, especially in content. Just five years ago, some 25 commissioning editors commissioned content for three channels. Now more than 100 people populate the Content Hub, with no equivalent increase in workload. This increased layer of the “muddled middle” has caused major organizational confusion between content procurement and channel transmission. The SABC’s international acquisitions arm has acquired more than R75-million worth of content that the channels cannot use. It has also mismanaged its programme stock, resulting in wasteful write-offs. At the SABC, no manager gets fired for poor performance. They merely get redeployed and replaced with another person. This is how the headcount has increased across the board.

The SABC has also been peddling the myth that to solve the present crisis, they will produce content “in house”. The truth is that presently less than 40% of the content budget is spent on “outside” production – ironically on its most-watched genres. The SABC produces its news and sports “in house” at substantially higher costs per minute than it spends on independently produced content. While the SABC has some respected producers, journalists and crew, any production of its popular genres in-house will be a disaster because of its poor management capabilities.

We need real change, not empty promises.

The present leadership has over the last five years presided over some monumental blunders – not least of which was the loss of local soccer from our screens. The present crisis could lead to a loss of more programmes. As viewers we notice the small things too - the increased amounts of technical errors in transmission, the programmes that never run on time and the many changes to the schedule. This is not merely a financial crisis. This is mismanagement at its worst. Public institutions can be well run, responsive to society’s needs and financially self-sufficient. There is clear proof of this in other sectors. We deserve the same for the SABC too. But we need a real sense of urgency to fix it. We need a commitment to professional leadership. We deserve a public broadcaster we can all be proud of.

TVIEC’S RECOMMENDED WAY FORWARD

The TV Industry Emergency Coalition believes that the following actions will go some way to solve the present impasse and lay the foundations for the creation of a vibrant TV industry:

IN THE IMMEDIATE TERM:

· APPOINT A NEW LEGALLY CONSTITUTED BOARD. We are encouraged by the dissolving of the current board and an interim board being put into place to stabilize the organization while a new board is constituted. We call for the appointment of people committed to public service broadcasting, including representation from the independent TV production industry for the new board. We call upon the interim board to urgently meet with the production sector in order to assist us in this difficult period and to help with damage control where possible.

· APPOINT NEW EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP. A new Group Chief Executive must lead the turn around strategy of the SABC and restore public confidence in the organisation. S/he must build a core team of competent and enlightened leaders unencumbered by the individuals who are tainted with the present mess.

· MAKE A PUBLIC COMMITMENT TO IMMEDIATELY PAY OUTSTANDING DEBTS. The SABC needs to create a ‘fast-track’ emergency system of payments of outstanding debts – including payments of repeat fees to actors, writers, musicians and producers. Its present excessive bureaucracy compounds the problem of cashflow. This schedule of payment must be made transparent to creditors. Despite numerous meetings and promises our industry is still largely unpaid and carries the burden of debt.

· CONDUCT AN INQUIRY/AUDIT INTO THE PRESENT CRISIS. An Inquiry must be conducted to properly investigate the causes of the present crisis and hold the present board and executive accountable in terms of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA). The public needs to know what the leadership has spent the money on – including a report of the expense accounts of the top leaders. A culture of accountability will go a long way to prevent future abuse of the SABC.

IN THE LONGER TERM

· REVIEW AND MODERNISE COMMISSIONING AND TERMS OF TRADE. The SABC still uses apartheid-era production contracts that fix prices/rates for talent as well as apartheid-era business practices including blacklisting, bullying, and micromanaging independent businesses. There is an urgent need to change this. Moreover, the terms of trade are unfair. They place all risk on the producer and undermine any possible self-sustainability. These terms of trade should be negotiated under the guidance of an independent mediator. In addition, the SABC must commit to commissioning programmes in regions other than Johannesburg.

· PLACE INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN THE HANDS OF ITS CREATORS. Presently, the SABC owns all the intellectual property rights of the content we develop and produce. The SABC has failed to exploit this content by selling it to broader markets. This discourages creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship. After a lifetime of content creation, the creator owns nothing. Independent producers are unable to build a sustainable industry if they cannot own what they produce.

· AN ICASA-LED REVIEW OF COMPLIANCE TO REGULATIONS. We believe that the SABC is in danger of being in flagrant violation of broadcast regulations. ICASA needs to act urgently to protect the integrity of the broadcast environment and to act in the public’s interest. This review of SABC compliance should cover all aspects of its license conditions and include public hearings on SABC performance.

· REVIVE THE SPIRIT OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING. The SABC has killed the spirit of public service broadcasting that was initiated at the dawn of democracy. The spirit of inclusiveness, consultation and citizen partnership created by the new government must benefit public broadcasting too. The new SABC must act in partnership with the independent production sector and other important civil society stakeholders to create great public broadcasting.

Again we state our commitment: We are not fighting against the SABC, we are fighting for the SABC.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: tvcrisis@gmail.com

This press release is written on behalf of the TVIEC (Television Industry Emergency Coalition) which consists of: IPO (Independent Producers Organization), SASFED (South African Screen Federation), TPA (The Producers Alliance), DFA (Documentary Filmmakers Association), WGSA (Writers Guild of South Africa) as well as the CWU

PRESS RELEASE - REPORT BACK: TVIEC MEETING WITH MINISTER

2009-07-05T23:59:00.001+02:00

4 July 2009

PRESS RELEASE

REPORT BACK: TVIEC MEETING WITH MINISTER

Yesterday, 3 July 2009, the Hon Minister of Communications, General S. Nyanda met with the TVIEC to receive a briefing on the extent of the crisis facing producers with regards to the turmoil at the SABC.

The TVIEC outlined the continued failure of the SABC to pay producers and the impact of the SABC’s immediate halt on procuring new content. The TVIEC is of the opinion that the independent production sector is under threat and that steps need to be taken to protect the sector.

The Minister affirmed the importance of the independent television production sector, noted its resilience during the economic downturn and its role in job creation. He stated that the sector is seen as a core player in digital convergence which will see increasing demands for local content. He stated that it is in the interest of government to help the independent production industry grow and in the creation of sustainable employment.

The TVIEC pledged to support and co-operate with the interim SABC board to ensure that the public broadcaster is stabilised and the crisis resolved.

The TV industry is estimated, by the Department of Trade and Industry, to employ 30 000 permanent workers and at least as many in freelance positions – as well as support a host of supplier industries. These jobs range from the highly skilled positions of writers and directors to a range of semi-skilled and unskilled positions including drivers, electricians, builders, painters, caterers and security guards.

Each drama series produced employs approximately 60 to 120 people – who in turn support 400 to 800 dependents. In addition, our products have a great multiplier effect. Each drama supports a range of related and unrelated industries from studios and equipment suppliers to clothing shops, hairdressers and food suppliers.

It is for this reason that the TV industry is recognized as a critical growth area for the economy.

The Gauteng Film Office has stated that in 2007, the film and television industry contributed R2.5-billion to the province and created 8 000 jobs. (A 2005 Delloite survey estimated that the SA audio visual industry generates R5.5-billion, with a multiplier of 2.5. They predict ours is an industry that generates in excess of R12-billion worth of economic activity per year.)

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: tvcrisis@gmail.com

This press release is written on behalf of the TVIEC (Television Industry Emergency Coalition) which consists of: IPO (Independent Producers Organization), SASFED (South African Screen Federation), TPA (The Producers Alliance), DFA (Documentary Filmmakers Association), WGSA (Writers Guild of South Africa) as well as the CWU (Creative Workers Union).

“Save our SABC” Coalition welcomes the Minister of Communications decisive actions and statements

2009-06-26T15:00:00.000+02:00

“Save our SABC” Coalition welcomes the Minister of Communications decisive actions and statements

26 June 2009

The “Save our SABC” (SOS) Coalition representing unions including COSATU, the Communications Workers Union, BEMAWU, a host of media NGOs including the Freedom of Expression Institute, Media Monitoring Africa, the Media Institute of Southern Africa, independent producer organizations and individual freedom of expression and communication activists and academics welcomes the recent statements and actions of the Minister of Communications, General Siphiwe Nyanda (ret).

Firstly, the Coalition welcomes the Minister’s statements as regards some of the root causes of the present crises at the SABC. The Minister acknowledged that the appointment process of the 2007 Board was flawed due to political interference and that serious implications arose from this fact. SOS believes that this frank acknowledgement of the issues allows us, going forward, to ensure that all future appointment processes of SABC boards and staff are free of political interference and further ensure maximum public participation and maximum transparency. This is an excellent starting point for resolving SABC problems in the long term.

Secondly, the Coalition welcomes the Minister’s assessment of the SABC crisis as multifold. SOS believes that the crises stem not only from problems with the SABC Board but also with SABC management and further with a lack of rigorous oversight from Parliament and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). Moving forward SOS believes that we now have an excellent opportunity to clarify the roles of these various governance and oversight structures so as in the future to hold them to the highest possible standards of governance and oversight.

Thirdly, the Coalition welcomes the Minister’s statements as regards the drafting of new legislation for the SABC. The Minister announced that his department will be amending the Broadcasting Act, in consultation with all relevant stakeholders. Further, he stated that the new legislation would bring the Charter in line with international best practice and that a more appropriate funding model, less dependent on advertising, would be introduced. SOS believes that new legislation will be one of the most effective ways of ensuring that the root problems of the SABC’s multiple crises are decisively and holistically dealt with. SOS is ready and willing to engage with the Department on these substantive issues.

Finally, moving forward SOS has a few further recommendations as regards the solving of the SABC crises. As stated on numerous occasions, SOS believes that Parliament needs to move swiftly as regards the appointment of an interim Board. Parliament should provide the President with its recommendations on the men and women with the necessary credentials to stabilize the SABC and to steer it towards financial health and good governance. Parliament must recommend people who are independent of vested interests, who have impeccable integrity and records of public service and who have skills and experience in corporate governance, finance, media, broadcasting and journalism. The interim Board’s mandate needs to include:

- The commissioning of an independent forensic audit (comprising of people outside the SABC) into the financial affairs of the SABC. These findings need to be reported to Parliament so as to ensure a public airing of issues. The recommendations of the forensic audit need to feed into new policy and legislation for the SABC. Further, the recommendations need to assist with the implementation of strict new financial systems within the SABC and the simultaneous rooting out of corruption and the dismissal of corrupt staff members.
- The negotiating of a financial bail-out of the SABC with National Treasury
- The urgent implementation of sustainable agreements as regards payment issues with key SABC stakeholders such as SABC unions and independent producers.
- Finally, the appointment of an executive management that is skilled and has impeccable integrity and the relevant broadcasting experience.

Also, immediately upon the appointment of the interim Board, Parliament must begin the public process culminating in the recommendation of a permanent Board to replace the interim Board which will sit for a maximum period of six months. The permanent board appointment process must be beyond criticism if the SABC is to have a chance of regaining public credibility. Thus it requires maximum transparency and public participation in the nominations, short-listing, interview and recommendations processes. Parliament must take responsibility for the caliber of people appointed to the SABC Board as they are responsible for making the necessary appointment recommendations to the President. We need a permanent board made up of men and women who are independent of major vested commercial and political interests, who have impeccable integrity and records of public service, who have skills and experience in corporate governance, finance, media, broadcasting and journalism and who broadly represent South Africa through being drawn from various sectors including labour, business and civil society.

For more information please contact:

Kate Skinner: (082) 926-6404
William Bird: (082) 887-1370

Encounters Press Release

2009-06-22T17:39:00.004+02:00

11th Encounters South African International Documentary Festival
2-19 July, Nu Metro cinemas, V&A Waterfront, Cape Town
For full details please go to www.encounters.co.za

Press Release
22 June 2009

Al-Jazeera at Encounters 2009
Encounters is pleased to announce that Jonathan Powell, head of Acquisitions of Al-Jazeera Network, will be attending Encounters from 2 to 9 July. Powell is actively seeking to buy existing product and is interested in co-financing new projects.

Completed documentaries: Encounters is calling on all filmmakers who have rights available for Al-Jazeera to submit their completed film which will be handed to Powell on his arrival.
The DVD must be properly labelled (title, running time, year of production, contact details including telephone email). Powell will contact you during the course of his visit if he is interested in acquiring your film.

Co-financing: Proposals for co-finance must include:
1 page synopsis
1 page biography of director and company profile
Finance plan and budget including commitments from other sources
All contact details
Trailer or promo if available

Deliver all DVDs and documents to: Refiloe Khobane at Encounters, 1st Floor 27 Caledon Street, Cape Town 8001 or email documents to Refiloe at reception@encounters.co.za
Deadline for delivery: 30 June 2009.
If there is interest in your project, Powell will schedule meetings with you from Saturday 4 July to Wednesday 8 July in Cape Town.

Encounters is supported by:
The National Film and Video Foundation, Cape Film Commission, Jan Vrijman Fund/IDFA, Pro Helvetia and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Vivien Cohen and the Human Elephant Foundation, the Africa Centre, French Embassy, British Council, High Commission of Canada, Business & Arts South Africa, Tempest Car Hire, Goodman Gallery, The Times, Exclusive Books, Nu Metro and Cape Town TV.

Encounters Documentary Film Festival

2009-06-22T10:40:00.002+02:00

Encounters International Documentary Festival has become a pivotal event in the South African film calendar. The 2009 programme of over 40 films combines the work of a host of top international and local filmmakers.

A record 14 South African films, made by the best and the brightest local filmmaking talent, make their World débuts, and another two have their South African Premières at Encounters.

For the past 11 years Encounters was the first platform to showcase major feature documentary films .Since its inception Encounters has screened over 1,241 films - 270 International titles and 130 South African titles - and has commissioned 44 films, with record attendance figures to date of 98,612.

This year there is an array of international work from Afghanistan, UK, USA, Canada, Cuba, Senegal, France, Egypt, Denmark, Germany, Israel, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Cameroon and Belgium.

The award-winning films include Oscar nominated and Golden Globe Award Winner 2009 - Best Foreign Language film Waltz with Bashir the animated documentary about the dreams that plague Israeli Army Conscripts, and a film by legendary director Werner Herzog, which captures the beauty of Antarctica in Encounters at the End of the World, was also a recipient of a 2009 Oscar nomination. Three winners of Sundance 2009 are Afghan Star which looks at the return of pop culture in Afghanistan and the risks for those involved. The film won the Audience and Directing Awards. The Grand Jury World Cinema Documentary Award winner Rough Aunties is about a group of brave compassionate Durbanites who fight for the rights of abused children, and the winner of IDFA's Joris Ivens award and Sundance's Best World Cinema Documentary Editing as well as the 2009 Berlinale Human Rights Award is Burma VJ – Reporting from a Closed Country which shows the perils of reporting form a closed and repressed country.

Who Killed Maggie? charts the last two weeks of Margaret Thatcher’s Political life; The Queen and I is a portrait of the glamorous Queen of Persia in exile in Paris; and Tyson is a mesmerising study of the bad boy of boxing.
Films with an African focus are Sacred Places which looks at St Leon which is a community in the city of Ouagadougou that lives and breathes film; Youssou N’Dour: I Bring What I Love is a cinematic journey about one man’s voice to inspire change; and Yande Codou, Griot of Senghor takes us into the world of one of Africa’s famed griots, an accomplished practitioner of polyphonic praise singing.

The short films include Bronx Princess - Rocky Otto a teenager from the Bronx is also a Ghanaian Princess; Slaves a powerful animated documentary about Abuk enslaved at 5 by the Sudanese government sponsored militia and looks at other children in difficult situations; Freddy Ilanga: Che’s Swahili Translator is a World Première and tells of a 15 year old who in 1965 was ordered to work as Che’s Swahili translator during a secret Congo mission to train anti-Mobuto rebels.

In The Age of Stupid Franny Armstrong sets her film in 2055 where a lone archivist compiles footage of the warning signs that we collectively chose to ignore and Four Wings and a Prayer is Nick de Pencier’s study of the Monarch butterfly.

The Champagne Spy concerns the complicated web of deceit and the high-life of a Mossad spy posing as a German in Egypt in the 60s directed by Nadav Schirman, and Israeli Yoav Shamir’s Defamation has the chutzpah to unpack anti-Semitism. Shamir is a guest of the Festival.

Fierce Light: when spirit meets action Velcrow Ripper’s highly personal film which questions his life as a social activist and asks can spirituality and action converge? Ripper is a guest of the Festival.

Music from the Inside Out is a portrait of the world famous Philadelphia Orchestra through the personal tales of some of the musicians and RIP –A Remix Manifesto examines copyright and promotes a ‘fair use’ in the reworking of art and music to create new works.

Over the past decade Encounters has been in the forefront of the renaissance of the South African documentary tradition, the Festival is immensely proud to host over 14 new SA works.

The Festival opens with Rewind - Director Liza Key‘s film about the making of Philip Miller’s TRC inspired Rewind: A Cantata for Voice, Tape and Testimony.

Other World premieres include The Invincibles Mark Kaplan’s rugby film which centres on the 1974 SA tour by the British and Irish Lions who broke the boycott and trounced the Boks. . For Which I am Prepared to Die the story of Hermanus born Roger Bushell the mastermind behind many escapes from WWII POW camps, including the Great Escape celebrated in a film of the same name. The film is made by Bushell’s niece, Lindy Wilson . In Tribes and Clans is an examination by radical thinkers of the colonial power’s socio-political constructs of Tribes and Clans.The director is Ntokozo Mahlalela.

Soap Star Dawn Matthews and rap artist HHP (Hip Hop Pantsula) search of their ancestors in the series Who Do You Think You Are? They are directed respectively by Tim Greene and Ernie Vosloo.

Two giants from the art world Kentridge and Dumas in conversation is directed by Catherine Meyburg.
From the music world Fokofpolisiekar “forgive them for they know not what they do” Bryan Little’s film about the in your face punk rock band Bellville band and the short Jitsvinger: maak it aan! uncovers the world of poet guitarist and hip hopster Quinton Goliath.

The Pioneer of Paraguay a short film about -a South African stranded in South America.

The Last Voyage director Genadendal born, Riaan Hendricks makes a personal journey at the time of his father’s death.

Craig and Damon Foster look at climate change from an African perspective in Nature of Life. Two short films under the banner of Healing Power of Nature are Liz Fish’s Deep Friends set in a chimpanzee Sanctuary in Zambia and River Of Ashes Emma Bestall’s film about the River Ganges, abused holy mother.
Encounters has partnered with the prestigious Goodman Gallery in showcasing the best of films made by South African artists, this will include a special screening entitled Artslot and a screening of select shorts prior some of the feature films.

Two South African Premieres are Sea Point Days Emmy Award winning director Francois Verster’s impressionistic look at life on the promenade and in the pools

Zola Maseko explores the wealth of 900 years of African Intellectual output in a library in The Manuscripts of Timbuktu.

Other South African films are Lunchbox Bullies which explores why bullies bully, and Daughter of Spirits Mother of Mine shows that the call of the ancestors is not always a gift and the short film Soul Train looks at the church coaches on the commuter trains from Soweto to Jozi.

Guests of the Festival
South African Guests : Dawn Matthews, Bryan Little (Fokofpolisiekar), Filipa Domingues (Fokofpolisiekar), Lindy Wilson (For which I’m Prepared to Die), Liz Fish (HPON – Deep Friends) and Emma Bestall (HPON –River of Ashes), HHP, Mark Kaplan(The Invicibles), Riaan Hendricks (The Last Voyage), Nhlanhla Mthethwa (Lunchbox Bullies), Zola Maseko The Manuscripts of Timbuktu), Liza Key(Rewind), Philip Miller (Rewind) Francois Verster (Sea Point Days), Ntokozo Mahlaela(Tribes and Clans), Nadine Angel Cloete(Jitsvinger: maak it aan!) Quinton Goliath (Jitsvinger: maak it aan!) Lisa Swart (The Pioneer of Paraguay) and Thabo Bruno Makoena (Soul Train).
International Guests: Yoav Shamir (Defamation, Velcrow Ripper (Fierce Light: when spirit meets action), Angele Diabang Brener (Yandou Codou), Katrin Hansing (Freddy Ilanga: Che's Swahili Translator)
Master Classes: Velcrow Ripper - creating soundscape; and Yoav Shamir - how to gain access to subjects when dealing with sensitive issues.

The Sponsors of the Encounters Film festival are;

The National Film and Video Foundation, Cape Film Commission, Jan Vrijman Fund/IDFA, Pro Helvetia and the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Vivien Cohen and the Human Elephant Foundation, the Africa Centre, French Embassy, British Council, High Commission of Canada, Business & Arts South Africa, Tempest Car Hire, Goodman Gallery, The Times, Exclusive Books, Nu Metro and Cape Town TV.

For further information look at our website www.encounters.co.za http://www.encounters.co.za or contact Joy Sapieka e-mail joyls@mweb.co.za

2 SABC directors attend probe

2009-06-22T10:40:00.001+02:00

Only two members of the SABC board managed to turn up at the inquiry being conducted by Parliament's communications portfolio committee into the fitness of the board to continue in office. by Michael Hamlyn

Alison Gilwald and Nadia Bulbulia, the two who pitched, were clearly reluctant to answer a number of the questions posed to them by the committee, saying that they were invited at short notice, and did not have time to prepare.

Gilwald told MPs that she needed to consult with other board members before some questions could be answered, but the chairperson Ismail Vadi told her that the board would be questioned individually about the conduct of their responsibilities.

Few answers

This contrasted with what committee member Johnny de Lange told her. He said that the board was being considered collectively.

Neither Bulbulia nor Gilwald were able to inform the committee on whether the board has ceased to function since the resignation of three of its members.

Bulbulia said she did not know whether their resignations took effect immediately or whether they have to work out three months' notice.

If the latter, then the board can still function because it will be quorate, and will have a deputy chairperson in Christine Qunta, one of the three who quit but said in a newspaper article on Thursday morning that she believed she is still a member.

Last board meeting

Vadi undertook to enquire from the presidency whether or not the three have been given a shorter notice period.

The only question that was answered came from the leader of the ANC group on the committee, Eric Kholwane, who wanted to know when the board last held a meeting. June 4, he was told.

The committee adjourned without getting much further and will reconvene next week, when the members hope to have further answers from more members of the board.

http://www.news24.com

South African broadcaster near collapse

2009-06-22T10:39:00.000+02:00

Massive debts and a spate of top-level resignations have pushed South Africa's public broadcaster to near-collapse, threatening a network once styled as the voice of the country's democracy. By Fran Blandy

The resignation of eight of the SABC's 12 board members as well as its chairman in recent weeks are just the latest in a string of scandals plaguing the debt-ridden broadcaster.

The board no longer has enough members to take binding decisions. Workers are on strike over a pay dispute, independent producers fume over lack of payment and a deadlock over how to proceed means no decisions are being taken at any level.

"If the board does not function, the SABC does not function. The legal constraints and protection of its own statutes (mean) that if the board does not meet, the SABC literally grinds to a halt," said board member Alison Gillwald.

She was addressing parliament's communications committee, which on Thursday opened an inquiry into what committee chair Ismael Vadi termed a "lack of effective corporate governance."

Gillwald said members had resigned in the middle of an incomplete audit process. The hamstrung board cannot now take decisions on salary increases or on critical expenditure for coverage of the 2010 football World Cup.

The SABC is crippled by over 800 million rand (98 million dollars) in debt and is seeking a two billion rand cash injection from the government.

Newspaper reports have outlined 40 million rand owed to producers, threatening to sink popular local soap operas, the network's bread-and-butter advertising vehicles.

Even parliament seems unsure how to proceed, with the committee struggling to agree whether the enquiry should continue and where the blame lay for the rot at the SABC.

Television only came to South Africa in 1976 as the Calvinist apartheid government feared the medium's influence on its segregationist rule. Once TV arrived, the government used it purely as a propaganda tool.

After the transition to democracy in 1994, the SABC became one of the most visible signs of the new nation, with a new cast of multiracial presenters broadcasting in all 11 official languages.

Now the SABC is accused of being a propaganda outlet for the ruling African National Congress (ANC). Around this year's elections, the network yanked a documentary about political satire that included cartoons of President Jacob Zuma.

Similarly, a documentary on former president Thabo Mbeki never made it to air, while the network was outed in 2006 for blacklisting commentators critical of the government.

In 2008, scandal arose again when chief executive Dali Mpofu was suspended for insubordination, just hours after he had suspended the head of news as tensions rocked a heavily divided board.

Shortly thereafter the previous administration sped through controversial legislation allowing government to dissolve the board, which would be appointed by the president and speaker of the National Assembly.

Mpofu, who also appeared before parliament this week, said the SABC was in a crisis of "the highest magnitude."

Opposition parties and the ANC were united in slamming the SABC for what they say is outlandish spending and failure to perform its function.

Mpofu told the committee that protecting the jobs of the more than 4,000 SABC workers was vital. The workers were, he said, "sitting at a public institution on auto pilot, with no leadership."

Parliament will summon more board members to explain themselves so they could decide whether to dissolve the board, or appoint interim members to salvage the network.

"It is haemorrhaging from every pore," Gillwald said. "It is unable to perform its basic duties."

http://www.google.com

R3m TV station in a box

2009-06-22T10:38:00.000+02:00

With the relaxation of broadcasting laws, a number of community TV transmission licences have been issued. Come 2012 and the introduction of Digital Terrestrial TV (DTT) in South Africa, the demand for community TV stations is expected to rise sharply.
The biggest barrier to entry, however, remains the cost of establishing a broadcast operation. Spescom Media IT, a veteran in the provision of broadcasting solutions, has come up with a unique offering: a solution incorporating a selection of best of breed equipment and systems that provides full broadcasting capabilities - starting at mere R3 million rather than the R20 - R30 million normally required.

Says Sean du Toit, Managing Director of Spescom Media IT: "With the appearance of new regional players such as Tshwane TV and Cape TV, combined with the shrinking of the larger broadcaster's budgets as the global economic crises makes itself felt locally, the demand for low cost studio infrastructure has increased. The introduction of DTT in 2012 is expected to intensify this demand. DTT will provide more channels and better quality picture and sound, typically requiring HD content. It is, however, expected that the broadcasters granted one of the few 16-channel DTT licences will be required to support a high percentage of community stations.

"To meet this increased demand, Spescom Media IT has leveraged its considerable experience and expertise, as well as its close relationships with world-class broadcast technology suppliers to design an integrated low-cost solution that meets emerging requirements without compromising quality or impeding future scalability of the broadcasting operation."

Explains Du Toit: "Our engineering expertise and insight into broadcast technologies has enabled us to develop a standardised but tightly integrated solution that fits the pocket of local organisations, while also giving them a stable, reliable technology platform which will easily scale to meet their future requirements.

"This standardised solution cuts down on engineering and solution design time and costs, but because it comprises worldclass technologies and solutions that are built on open standards we are confident that broadcast operations with unique needs will be able to upgrade or add to this base solution to customise it to meet their specific requirements."

Says Jene Palmer, CEO at Spescom Limited, "The solution not only meets the requirements of smaller community stations or organisations that are starting out with limited funding, but is suitable for the extension or expansion of a station (e.g., the addition of a new studio) or as a disaster recovery kit. It will also serve as a starting point for broadcast organisations that are migrating to High Definition (HD) and digital environments, the ability to create HD content and leverage the efficiencies of a digital environment being critical to future competitiveness in the broadcast arena."

Notes Du Toit: What makes the creation of this packaged solution possible at this time is the fact that entry level technologies have now advanced in functionality to the point that they are able to provide acceptable outputs for high quality broadcasts. This is largely due to the convergence of information and and broadcast technologies. Today, a myriad of standalone systems (e.g., character generator, vision mixer, spot player, etc) are combined in a single server. This is driving the release of solutions that have broader functionality, are easier to use and cost less."

The Spescom Media IT "TV station-in-a-box" package includes three Sony XDCam EX high definition cameras, a Ross' CrossOver HD studio mixer, Miller camera pedestals and PlayBox Technology's playout solution. Du Toit explains the reasoning supporting this combination of technologies: "A typical studio, such as a news studio, will require three HD cameras, video editing and audio final mix facilities, a server transmission system with automation for playout. In addition, an electronic news gathering (ENG) kit would be required for external news gathering, interviews and footage. This usually comprises a tripod, lights, camera, microphone and lapel mike. The technology that Spescom Media IT has selected for inclusion in the package, although entry level, meets all these requirements."

Fast implementation, ease of expansion

The package allows a TV station, depending on the physical building requirements, to be up and running within six weeks. Says Du Toit: "Spescom Media IT can provide a turnkey solution, from site assessment to design, diagrams, implementation and commissioning, and training of staff. It's not only our technical expertise but our keen understanding of operational and workflow requirements - and knowledge of how the industry works - that enables us to provide solutions that meet practical needs and budgets."

The 'TV station in box' is designed to enable operations to easily scale up and out. "As a station's operations expand, its needs will change," explains Du Toit, "and we have taken this into consideration. Whether a station wants to add more editing suites or boost shared storage capacity or even add a new studio, the 'TV station in a box' technologies offer suitable upgrade paths. In addition, they are built on open standards that allow integration to other technologies.

"This is a unique offering that we believe will be eagerly adopted. It lowers the barriers to entry in the broadcast arena and offers smaller players the opportunity to compete with larger broadcasters on a more level playing field. With the right technological solution in place, the organisation can focus on core functions - namely creating and delivering quality content."
For more information about Spescom visit www.spescom.com.

For further information contact:

Stuart Vey
Group Executive: Marketing and Communications
Spescom Limited
Tel: 011 266 1701
Or: 011 266 1754
Fax: 011 266 1553
Email: svey@za.spescom.com

TVIEC Press Release June 18th

2009-06-19T12:53:00.000+02:00

The SABC’s response to the Television Industry Emergency Coalition’s memorandum indicates that the management fails to appreciate the real need to work with the independent production sector to find solutions that can help shield the industry and our viewers from the present crisis.

They continue to act with arrogance. They continue to decide who will and won’t be paid monthly with no input from ourselves. Reasonable requests put forward by the TVIEC such as to have an independent professional (accounting firm or individual) representing our industry on their financial committee that determines the payment plan to our industry through the crisis are met with resistance. We will not standby idly while production houses are forced to fold and people loose their jobs. We are demanding that a payment plan be developed through a bi- lateral process and the onerous bureaucratic administrative processes recently imposed and used as excuses for non payment be lifted immediately.

The SABC Management needs to build genuine partnerships across the board, and specifically with content creators – the true custodians of public broadcasting who through changing boards and management, through battles between executives at the SABC continue to ensure that quality programming remains at the centre of SABC’s offering. It is the independent sector that truly deliver on the SABC’s public mandate and are central in promoting the values of the society.
There is no sustainable future for the SABC outside of real partnerships with content creators. We seek to see the SABC being built into a truly public broadcaster, free of government or state interference.

Over the last three years expenditure at the SABC has outstripped revenue. Despite this, senior management salary levels have increased dramatically and the number of middle management has grown without any check. The organization has been characterized by a top down approach to all things, an increase in bureaucracy and a deteriorating relationship with all its partners, including workers and the production industry.

The production sector’s deteriorating relationship with the SABC has been compounded by the unilateral imposition of new, onerous administrative contractual burdens on producers. What is also painfully evident over a five year period is that budgets have decreased. A good deal of the cost of programming goes to supporting this increased bureaucracy, and not to what appears on the screen.

Writers, actors, directors, editors, producers and other creative crew’s fees have been adversely affected over the past few years; this while SABC executives earn salaries equivalent to an entire years operating costs for a production company.

This situation has forced professional industry organisations to come together of late and assert that as key custodians of the public broadcast mandate we will no longer tolerate the de-professionalisation of the industry and in turn the public broadcaster. The recent and ongoing failure of the SABC to pay producers and their inability to give assurances as to when and if producers will be paid is highly informative and illustrates the degree of melt down.
The SABC need to demonstrate to the independent production constituency a true willingness to listen to their concerns. The industry is tired of years of lip service regarding partnerships we need to see some movement.

President Jacob Zuma has called for public institutions to be accountable, transparent, responsive, honest and committed to service delivery. There is dire need to translate this into reality at the SABC. We are therefore extremely disappointed that the SABC management still fails to appreciate the depth of the crisis they have caused in the industry and an unwillingness to take active steps to remedy this situation.

GFC Provincial Response to the current financial crisis

2009-06-19T10:16:00.001+02:00

12 June 2009

Provincial Response to the current financial crisis

The Gauteng Film Commission is currently compiling a report on behalf of the Provincial
Government outlining the impacts of the current financial crisis on the local film and TV
industries.

In particular we require any information regarding the following:

- Any reported company failures/ closures
- Any reported job losses
- Any reported cancellations of productions and related production volume impacts
- Any other reported impacts that can be directly or indirectly ascribed to the current crisis (whether as a result of the global credit crunch or the crisis at the SABC).

In addition, we would welcome inputs from organisations regarding the type of support that
they would like to see from Province and the Gauteng Film Commission during this period in
order to protect industry jobs in the short term while creating new jobs in the medium to longer
term.

This information will be used to fashion a more cohesive response from the Gauteng Film
Commission as well as allow us to lobby the provincial government for greater sector support
during the crisis.

Should you require any additional information please do not hesitate to contact us.

Your assistance will be greatly appreciated.

Yours sincerely,

Terry Tselane
Chief Executive

-----

should you wish to respond, please email jacques@gautengfilm.org.za

SABC ’S RESPONSE TO THE TVIEC MEMORANDUM

2009-06-18T12:51:00.002+02:00

Johannesburg, 17 June 2009 - Following the public protest by the TV Industry Emergency Coalition (TVIEC) at the SABC on 04 June 2009, the SABC, after a careful consideration of the memo presented by the Coalition to the Corporation, respond as follows:

BACKGROUND

Over the last five years, the SABC has grown the local content’s budget from R230million to R1.1 billion.

The SABC has seen the growth of local content on television in the last three years from ratios of 60% international: 40% local to 70% local: 30% international content at present.

Alongside that has been the growth of the independent production industry from 20 companies 2004 to 408 in 2009, as a consequence of the SABC’s strategic investment in the industry.

The SABC sources 100% of it’s its local content from the independent producers except for sports and reversioning which is done in-house.

The mandate of the SABC on SA Content and the commissioning of independently produced SA programming are not mutually exclusive as we have seen the growth of local content impacting positively on the growth of the independent production sector.

In addition to the investment mentioned above, the SABC has created a specific industry development unit, to focus on developmental issues and targeted projects to assist with the growth of the industry. Listed hereunder are some of the projects:

Sediba Programme

• Provides Master Class training for commissioning editors, script writers, directors and producers on commissioned SABC programmes.

Student Reel

• Student Reel is an innovative television slot dedicated to screening films produced by students and aspiring film makers who would have otherwise not had an opportunity to have their work publicly screened

• It also enables regional diversity and women film makers an opportunity to have their content screened.

Regional Variation

• To ensure diversification of companies doing business with SABC, the SABC is preferentially procuring in the regions other than Gauteng, Kwa-Zulu Natal and Western Cape.

And other projects such as Research and Development, ICONS and NABU’BOMI.

In response to the issues raised by the TVIEC in their memorandum of demands, the SABC would like to set the record straight on three major issues raised by the TV Industry:

1. PAYMENT
The SABC acknowledges the challenges faced by the industry, and acknowledges what is due to them. However, at this moment it is difficult for the public broadcaster to make a definitive commitment in terms of how much we can pay our suppliers each month. We are also working block-by-block to create more certainty to our local industry creditors.

It is difficult for the SABC to make this commitment at this stage, as the corporation’s cash flow varies on a month to month basis.

In as much as we are facing a cash flow problem, we have however made inroads in trying to process payments due to our vendors in the Production Industry.

Last month the industry was owed R129 Million by the SABC, and this amount has been reduced to R60 million. This clearly shows that we are gradually dealing with this issue.

The SABC is in the process of finalising a payment plan which will soon be shared with the Industry, as agreed upon in a meeting held on 2 June 2009 between both parties.

2. SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES
Around the issue of systems and processes, the SABC acknowledges that proper systems and processes need to be in place in any organisation. Over the past five years, the organisation has invested in systems such as SAP, TVBMS and IPM, which are geared to assist with processes such as budgeting and commissioning.

We acknowledge that there will be glitches, but the SABC is committed to perfecting all systems and processes in place.

The Operations subcommittee including SABC and TV Industry representatives to deal with this issue will be revived with immediate effect.

Addendums are attached showing the Administration Value Chain and Payment.

3. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
The Corporation takes the issue of intellectual property quite seriously, which is why the SABC has funded research around this matter. A report was received in October 2008 with recommendations, and the report was shared with the Production Industry.

We are expecting the Industry to interrogate this report, and the IP subcommittee exists to deal with these issues arising from the report.

An Indaba also needs to be finalized with all stakeholders such as the SABC, Production Industry and Government being involved to engage the matter.

It must be stressed that it is not the SABC’s sole responsibility to deal with this matter, but together with the Industry we need to approach government for assistance and guidance.

Some of the issues raised in the memorandum are not the SABC’s responsibility and should be referred to the relevant stakeholders. These issues are:

Price fixing on actors and presenter’s fees (Actors and Presenters are not directly employed by the SABC but by the respective Production Companies); therefore this issue should be dealt with collectively by all affected stakeholders (Actors, Presenters, Musicians, Producers and the SABC)

A mandatory provision for Industry representation on the SABC Board (This matter should be referred to the Portfolio Committee on Communications in Parliament as they recommend the names of Board members to the Presidency and the SABC is not involved in the selection of Board members.)

The SABC supports the enquiry on a suitable public service broadcast model. However, it must be stated once again that the SABC is constantly delivering on its local content quotas as set by ICASA.

During the 4th quarter which was between January-March 2009, both radio and television continued to surpass the minimum requirement on local content quotas. For example, the ICASA quota is 55% for SABC 1 and 2, and 35% for SABC 3, in this regard SABC 1 had 75.01% for full day and 73% for prime time local content and SABC 2 was at 74.93% for full day and 88.49% for prime time local content respectively. In regards to SAB3, they performed at 46.50% for full day and 44.82% for prime time local content.

In closing, the SABC reaffirms its commitment to building a vibrant, growing and transforming production industry and appeals to the industry to assist the SABC in these trying times, because the SABC depends on the production industry, as equally as the industry depends on the SABC. The production industry must also give credit where it is due, and acknowledge the enormous work the SABC has done in the arena of promoting local content.

Media Enquiries:

Kaizer Kganyago

SABC Spokesman

082 306 8888

Torrents versus TV

2009-06-16T08:19:00.002+02:00

While South Africans are waiting for competition in the pay-TV market, many tech-savvy individuals get their TV series and movies elsewhere.
South Africa’s television market is not particularly vibrant. The country’s state broadcaster, the SABC, is in serious financial trouble and MultiChoice’s DStv remains the country’s only pay-TV service. While four pay-TV licenses were handed out by ICASA in 2007, the new providers have yet to launch a fully-fledged pay-TV competitor to MultiChoice.

DStv has strong support in South Africa, and has a particularly compelling programming line-up in sports, movies, documentaries and news. Their experience in the broadcasting market and long term content contracts will make it difficult for a competitors to take them on, but the company is facing competition from a new rival: File Sharing and the Internet.

It is common knowledge that more and more people are turning to the Internet for their entertainment needs in place of watching television. A 2007 survey showed that the overall online viewership rose to over 80% for US adults.

According to Alexa, a measurement engine of website popularity, YouTube is the third most popular website in the world. Hulu, a free online video service that offers streaming TV shows to visitors, has shown a 490% increase in total streams year-over-year.

Even in South Africa where the broadband penetration level is significantly lower than in the developed world YouTube is still the fifth most popular website in the country. The popularity of websites like YouTube and Hulu and the strong growth in online entertainment services gives a strong indication that the convenience of video on demand and the sheer amount of video content online make the Internet an attractive alternative to traditional television.

The biggest threat to television may however not come from official online entertainment channels like Youtube and Hulu, but rather from file sharing services like LimeWire and BitTorrent. Users will typically download full series consisting of numerous episodes and watch them at their convenience.

Broadband users can download movies and television series free of charge using peer-to-peer services, and despite copyright concerns this has become a very popular and convenient way to access content.

A recent statement by the UK Creative Industries estimated that the impact of illegal file sharing is so severe that that it is threatening nearly 40% of all jobs in the creative industries.

Bandwidth pricing and restrictive monthly usage limits, associated with local broadband services, limits the full impact of P2P file sharing in South Africa, but many individuals use portable drives and free wireless networks to share their content for free. A single TV series or movie download can now be shared with friends without the need to use up costly Internet bandwidth.

Apart from the benefit of being able to watch a television series when the user finds it convenient, other benefits include the absence of advertising and the ability to watch all episodes at once rather than waiting a week for the next episode as is usually the case with traditional TV. Another advantage for South Africans using downloaded series and movies rather than traditional channels is that they will gain access to material typically not released in South Africa yet.

To facilitate ease of use specialized equipment exists, like the Iomega ScreenPlay TV Link, which allows users to plug their USB drive or portable HDD directly into the device and play their encoded content through their television without any hassles.

While content producers, television channels and media houses are actively fighting illegal file sharing and copyright infringement, the widespread use of file sharing services means that it is a battle which is nearly impossible to win.

Instead of fighting this indomitable wave of file sharers, some companies are embracing the Internet to distribute their content.

Hulu, a website that offers commercially-supported streaming video of TV shows and movies from various networks and studios, is a good example. Closer to home MultiChoice’s DStv on Demand PC provides DStv premium subscribers access to previously aired content from channels like Supersport, MNet and KykNet.

In South Africa Internet usage and broadband access is still poor, but a growing number of people are making use of file sharing to watch their favourite television shows and the latest movies. Traditional television services may be forced to adapt their current business models to ensure that they don’t lose viewership.

http://mybroadband.co.za

SABC denies Mandela rumours

2009-06-16T08:19:00.001+02:00

The SABC is trying to quell rumours that it has disguised an internet café in Qunu in the Eastern Cape as a community project, in order to later make millions of rands from the death of former president Nelson Mandela. by Sanri van Wyk
According to media reports, the SABC established an internet café at a cost of about R400 000 in Qunu – Madiba’s home town in the Eastern Cape.

Furthermore, these reports say the SABC is planning to turn the internet café into a hub for foreign media, and thus generate millions of rands.

They also indicate that the SABC has paid Madiba’s grandson, Mandla Mandela, R3m for the exclusive broadcast rights to his grandfather’s funeral.

Mandla is chief of the Mvezo settlement which borders on Qunu.

R700m spent on ‘Project M’

The public broadcaster has apparently already spent about R700m on the so-called “Project M”.

This comes as the public broadcaster is expecting a loss of about R800m for the financial year which ended in March.

SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago vehemently denied the possible existence of a “Project M”. According to him, the SABC regularly identifies “stories” about important political role-players, “stories” in which they invest money.

Kganyago says the internet café is merely a community project which was established because the SABC wanted to help the people of Qunu by providing them with internet access.

It was established and opened in 2007. “There is no Project M. We don’t know when Madiba is going to die.”

http://www.news24.com

SABC is risk for Sentech

2009-06-16T08:18:00.002+02:00

Sentech has identified the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) as a potential business risk, although the public broadcaster has being paying its bills to the national signal distributor on time, says Sentech CEO Sebiletso Mokone-Matabane. by Paul Vecchiatto
She made this comment in answer to questions by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications late last week, following the presentation of Sentech's budget plan for the current financial year.

The SABC is Sentech's largest customer and the signal distributor was originally part of the corporation.

Recently, the SABC has been hit by the news that it needs a R2 billion cash injection from government and has failed to pay some of its bills, particularly to satellite TV broadcaster MultiChoice and media production houses. This crisis manifested itself further in a raft of board resignations from the SABC during the past week.

“So far, the SABC has been paying its bills on time, but we have to identify it as a business risk in light of what has been happening there,” Mokone-Matabane noted.

She said one of the options could be to turn off the transmission signal if the SABC defaults on its payments. “But we would not take that decision on our own. We would only take it in consultation with the rest of government.”

During the Sentech presentation, it highlighted there was still a funding shortfall of R558 million for the transmission of digital and analogue TV signals during the so-called dual illumination period. This is when the country migrates to digital terrestrial TV (DTTV) with the analogue signal due to be switched off in November 2011. So far, the state has provided R330 million to cover the costs of transmitting both signals.

Dual costs

During the dual illumination period, Sentech's operating costs are expected to rise from R994.463 million in the current financial year, to R1 billion in 2010. However, revenue streams are expected to decline in 2010 from R944.548 million to R914.487 million, leaving losses of R59.157 million and R52.353 million in 2009 and 2010, respectively.

Capital expenditure for the roll-out of DTTV is expected to be R960 million by 2013, when 92% of the population should be covered. However, the shortfall from government's funding allocation so far means R115 million has not been allocated yet.

Dual illumination began on 30 October last year and Sentech is operating a pilot for the SABC and privately-owned e.tv. So far, Sentech has achieved 33% population coverage at 31 March. This is because the Department of Communications and regulator ICASA have delayed the finalisation of the DTTV spectrum plan and policy, and so the target of 48% could not be met.

Sentech's role in the Confederations Cup and the 2010 Soccer World Cup is to provide satellite infrastructure as part of government's guarantees. The signal distributor was allocated R300 million in the 2008 communications budget speech, of which R200 million has been paid over. The remaining R100 million is to cover operational and bandwidth costs.

Government has only paid Sentech R500 million of the required R4.4 billion to roll out a national broadband wireless network. This network is to be built with the aims of meeting the country's millennium development goals and to lower the costs of connectivity.

Sentech CFO Siddique Cassim said the National Treasury is of the view that the balance of the money is raised from the financial markets, but this will have a negative impact on meeting those challenges.

http://www.itweb.co.za

SABC implodes

2009-06-16T08:18:00.001+02:00

The SABC’s debt mountain is even larger than reported -- the public broadcaster owes SuperSport nearly R100-million. More than 1 000 members of the independent television production industry marched on the SABC last week demanding a change in leadership and for the SABC to pay up. by Lloyd Gedye
But the Mail & Guardian has established that larger players have also been affected by the public broadcaster’s financial woes.

Industry insiders told the M&G that the R100-million owed to SuperSport relates to Premier Soccer League (PSL) matches, as well as cricket matches that the SABC sub-licenses from Multichoice’s sports arm.

The insiders said that negotiations between SuperSport and the SABC regarding the money owed are continuing and that the SABC will be able to settle the outstanding millions only once it receives the R2-billion bail-out it has requested from the government.

But that bail-out looks unlikely to materialise soon. Communications ministry spokesperson Tiyani Rikhotso told the M&G this week that the treasury, the SABC and the communications department will meet to find “a solution to the financial challenges facing the public broadcaster”.

“So far there haven’t been any movements in that regard but it’s something that we are definitely attending to,” said Rikhotso.

The SABC has the rights to at least 150 PSL matches a year from SuperSport. In 2007 the PSL sold the broadcasting rights for the league’s matches to SuperSport in a deal that was reported to be worth R1.6-billion.

In terms of the deal SuperSport had rights to more than 250 PSL matches, of which 150 were to be sub-licensed to a free-to-air broadcaster (as opposed to a subscription service) as stipulated in the contract. The SABC, which had previously paid R67-million a year for the PSL rights, snapped up the free-to-air matches, as this was key to bringing in massive advertising revenue.

SuperSport chief executive Imtiaz Patel said at the time that securing the rights to PSL matches was crucial to its growth strategy. The pay-TV operator was focusing on the emerging black middle-class market with its DStv Compact offering, priced at R200 a month, and the PSL matches were a huge drawcard.

SuperSport and the SABC refused this week to divulge any details about the sub-licensing arrangements between them. “This is a contractual issue and we are dealing with our creditors directly,” SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago told the M&G.

He confirmed that football and cricket were the main sports the SABC sub-licensed from SuperSport. Asked if its R100-million debt would affect the public broadcaster’s relationship with SuperSport and its sports coverage generally, Kganyago said that the relationship “was not under threat”.

Patel refused to discuss the sub-licensing agreements. “The SABC are our partners on many matters related to sports rights,” he said. “The agreements between us and the SABC are confidential and therefore I feel it is inappropriate to disclose these matters in public.”

Board slammed for firing Mpofu
The South Gauteng High Court added to the SABC’s woes by ruling against its decision to fire its former chief executive, Dali Mpofu, writes Lynley Donnelly.

The Mpofu saga began in May last year after he fired the SABC’s head of news, Snuki Zikalala, for allegedly leaking internal documents. The SABC board, under former chairperson Khanyi Mkonza, axed Mpofu the following day, citing his lack of authority to fire Zikalala.

Mpofu took the matter to the courts and has since been reinstated and suspended a number of times.

This decision relates to his first suspension. The court’s decision in his favour was subsequently appealed by the SABC.

The decision by the appeals bench of the South Gauteng Court to dismiss the SABC’s appeal was unanimous.

Judge Mahomed Jajbhay declared that Mkonza’s actions had been unacceptable. In ordering costs, he said: “I find that the conduct of the chairperson [Mkonza] when assessed against the relevant background facts and the principles of corporate governance is not to be encouraged … She clearly got caught up in an emotional response to the suspension of Dr Zikalala.”

He went on to say that the “leadership qualities of Ms Mkonzo as well as the other non-executive directors were wanting”.

A spokesperson for Mpofu said that the axed chief executive was elated by the decision but “was not necessarily contemplating going back to the SABC”.

He and his lawyers would make a decision on the matter only after examining the documents, she said.

SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said the SABC still had to study the judgement.

Board dissolves
The SABC board dissolved on Thursday after the resignation of three board members, in a development that will force Parliament to appoint an interim governing structure.

The board members who quit with immediate effect were Bheki Khumalo, Andile Mbeki and Desmond Golding.

The South African Press Association reported that the three said in a joint statement that it was “in the public interest” for them to do so.

“We are mindful of the enormity of the challenges facing the SABC.”

Their resignations come days after board chair Khanyisile Mkonza resigned, making way for the appointment of an interim chair, Ashwin Trikamjee.

However, legal opinion obtained by the ministry of communications was that Trikamjee’s appointment was illegal as only President Jacob Zuma is entitled to appoint the chair and deputies.

According to Ismail Vadi, chairperson of Parliament’s communications committee, the board was in any event “technically dysfunctional” because it did not have a quorum.

According to Tiyani Rikhotso, spokesperson for the department of communications, the parliamentary committee must now nominate a new set of acting board members who will serve until a new board is appointed. Their term should last no more than six months.

The SABC had been scheduled to appear next week before the portfolio committee.

On Thursday Business Day reported that Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda intended taking the board to task for installing an illegal interim chair. He was due to meet the board on Friday to express concerns about this and other issues plaguing the broadcaster, including financial mismanagement and its plea for a R2-billion bailout from government.

Before his resignation Khumalo had expressed his desire to step down as soon as possible.

“It is the right thing to do. Let the ruling party and the president appoint an interim board,” he told the Mail & Guardian.

He said the board had needed only his and one other person’s resignations for it to dissolve.

“The only alternatives are for the board to dig in their heels or to go through the parliamentary process,” he said. Khumalo also expressed concern that a lengthy parliamentary process could inflict additional reputational damage on the broadcaster.

Rikhotso echoed these sentiments. “We are only interested in seeing a board that will steer the SABC back to a stable state,” he said.

http://www.mg.co.za/

SABC and unions locked in talks

2009-06-16T08:17:00.001+02:00

The SABC and a number of unions were meeting at the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) in Johannesburg today to try to resolve a pay dispute.
"They are still in the hearing at the moment," said CCMA official Danielle Martin.

Communication Workers Union (CWU) negotiator Vulture Ntukuli said the dispute revolved around the national broadcaster’s revision of a pay agreement, in which it cited its financial problems and the global economic climate.

They were to have implemented a multi-term agreement where union members would receive a 12.2 percent increase.

But the agreement was not implemented and it appeared that 2.2 percent would also have been shaved off it.

Ntukuli said they had tried to resolve the matter internally, asking for meetings, but eventually, after a letter to acting chief executive officer Gab Mampone they were told that the SABC would invoke an escape clause that was built into the agreement.

In terms of the escape clause, they could reopen negotiations if the consumer price index (CPI) which indicates the inflation rate, dropped below 4 percent or went above 8 percent. Inflation came in at 8.4 percent for April.

The CWU is also upset that this decision was taken without discussing it with the unions first.

Two other unions - the Broadcast, Electronic Media and Allied Workers’ Union and the Media Workers Association of SA - were reportedly also participating in the CCMA meeting, but were not immediately available for comment.

Meanwhile, Communications Minister Siphiwe Nyanda and President Jacob Zuma met over the weekend to discuss the crisis with the SABC’s board.

This came after Nyanda informed the remaining four board members at a meeting on Friday that because they did not make a quorum they could not make executive decisions. They were also told that the appointment of Ashwin Trikamjee as interim chairman did not count as only Zuma could make an appointment.

At the same time, the communications department and the Treasury are discussing the company’s financial crisis.

Mampone has said that they will need at least R2 billion to solve their financial problems.

http://www.thetimes.co.za

The TV is broke, fix it

2009-06-08T10:58:00.002+02:00

More than a thousand members of the embattled independent television production industry marched on SABC headquarters in Johannesburg on Thursday to hand in a memorandum calling for change at the public broadcaster. by Matthew Krouse
The producers first rallied at the refurbished Atlas Studios in Milpark, Johannesburg, the production hub where production and post-production takes place for some of South Africa's top television shows.

The parking lot directly outside the studios became a platform for outspoken and confrontational outbursts directed at the SABC.

Spokesperson for the Young Communist League Castro Ngobese told the crowd: "Down with the SABC board of boyfriends and girlfriends!" He blamed former president Thabo Mbeki and his former spokesperson, Smuts Ngonyama, for "looting the SABC to fund Cope".

Ngobese called for the SABC board to be dissolved before the government provides what is expected to be a R2-billion bail-out.

Others called for the payment of residual fees to television writers, royalties for musicians, the use of standard contracts and repeat fees for actors once the broadcaster has sold material to networks in other countries.

The march organisers had asked the protesters to wear red. They responded by sporting a range of radical chic items in the appropriate colour, including Fidel Castro-like T-shirts and red technician overalls.

Placards read: "It's broke so fix it", "It's just not write", "Act now or we won't" and "Proverbs 2010 -- and the SABC said 'Let there be darkness'."

The broadcaster's acronym was rewritten as "Stop Actors Being Cheated".

http://www.mg.co.za

SABC protesters demand change in Cape Town

2009-06-08T10:58:00.001+02:00

A small, but enthusiastic crowd gathered opposite the Sea-Point offices of the SABC to protest against the broadcaster's failure to pay independent producers. by Duncan Alfreds
"This is a sad day," Roberta Durrant of Penguin Films told News24 as police kept watch from a distance.

"The independent production industry has been brought to its knees because the SABC is unable to pay us," she said.

She detailed how the SABC regularly takes months, even years, to pay for content.

"We finished Sokhutu & Partners in 2007, and we're still waiting for payment. Repeat fees can stretch back to 2006, and the SABC often reneges on paying interest on its accounts."

Way beyond fear

The rain and cold weather didn't dampen the spirit of the group who were instructed to wear red because "the SABC ties us up in red tape", Kali Van Der Merwe, board member of the Documentary Filmmakers Association, told the crowd.

"They give us stories that there are administrative hiccups and 'We're coping with a backlog,' but it's a systemic failure that we want to correct," said Durrant.

"We waited for seven months for payment on Stokvel," she added.

Several industry speakers addressed the crowd, detailing their negative experiences with the SABC.

"We are way beyond fear," said Durrant. "We want to be part of the solution."

Conrad Van Schoor, financial manager for the SABC regional office, accepted the memorandum, but refused to speak to the media present, including SABC News.

http://www.news24.com

SABC board chairman resigns

2009-06-08T10:57:00.002+02:00

SABC board chairman Kanyi Mkhonza has resigned following a board meeting yesterday, the broadcaster has announced. “(Mkhonza) has decided to step down from this position in the interest of the SABC. She will, however, continue to be a member of the board,” said spokesman Kaizer Kganyago.
Board member Ashwin Trikamjee has been appointed as acting chairman in her place.

Last night, Kganyago said the Department of Communications had been told about the resignation.

Earlier yesterday, the broadcaster‘s acting chief executive, Gab Mampone, told a crowd of booing protesters they had a right to be angry with the SABC

He said the SABC was committed to paying the outstanding R60-million in unpaid production fees which had sparked the protest outside its headquarters here.

“We have R60-million outstanding and we accept that,” said Mampone.

The Creative Workers‘ Union of SA called for the board to step down, and for a public hearing into the SABC by the Independent Communications Authority of SA.

Babies in prams, bare-breasted women and a dog were among the star- studded crowd, up in arms because actors and production houses were not being paid.

Mampone said a payment plan was “on the table” following a meeting with industry representatives on Tuesday. They now had to decide how to apportion payment from the pool of cash available.

Mampone recently warned that the SABC would need at least R2-billion to solve its financial problems.

He said the main contributing factor to their predicament was a fall in advertising revenue.

The Young Communist League said the R2-billion should be withheld until the board stepped down, accusing it of siding with the opposition Congress of the People party. – Sapa

We'll pay, says SABC

2009-06-08T10:57:00.001+02:00

The SABC was committed to paying R60m in unpaid production fees which sparked a protest outside its headquarters in Johannesburg on Thursday.
"We have R60 million outstanding and we accept that," said acting chief executive officer Gab Mampone, after accepting a memorandum that called for the SABC board to step down.

He said a payment plan was "on the table" following a meeting with industry representatives on Tuesday.

They now had to decide how to apportion payment from the pool of cash available, he said.

Mampone recently said the broadcaster would need at least R2bn to solve its financial problem.

Right to be angry

"You are allowed to get angry, you have the right to be angry with the public broadcaster," said Mampone, separated from protesters by a human chain formed by the police.

"We will settle those outstanding debts," he said as protesters shouted "when".

He said a contributing factor to their predicament was a fall in advertising revenue. He also called on those present to work with the SABC to solve the problem it faces.

Mampone was booed as he arrived to receive the memorandum which also called for the Independent Communications Authority of SA to hold public hearings on whether the SABC was complying with broadcasting regulations and its fiduciary duties.

However, the Young Communist League said the R2bn should be withheld until the board steps down, accusing it of siding with opposition party, the Congress of the People.

"The board must go, then they can get their money," YCL spokesperson Castro Ngobese said.

The board has come in for sustained criticism from some political quarters for its perceived allegiance to former president Thabo Mbeki, who appointed the board, and whose forced resignation in 2008 was seen as the trigger for the formation of ANC breakaway group Cope.

Improperly constituted

Unions and the Freedom of Expression Institute have also asked why the board does not have a labour and a media industry representative, arguing that this makes it improperly constituted.

Meanwhile, babies in prams, bare-breasted women and a dog were among the star-studded crowd of protesters.

Reworking a song popularised by President Jacob Zuma, they sang Awulethu imali yami (bring my money) as they stopped traffic and drew crowds of onlookers.

Marching under the umbrella of the TV Industry Emergency Coalition and the SABC Crisis Coalition, around 1 000 actors, producers, writers and technical people danced and laughed saying they were pleased they had finally come together as one group to highlight a growing list of concerns.

These include worries that the SABC is not paying for work on time, causing a knock-on effect in the industry; that it is cutting back on local content; and that it was not paying for repeat programmes.

"We don't want to bring the SABC down, we just want it to meet its obligations to all South Africans and the industry," said Peter Goldsmid, who is on the committee which organised the march.

Swaziland Solidarity Network spokesperson Lucky Lukhele called on the SABC to stop its coverage of King Mswati. Lukhele also used the platform to draw attention to the detention of People's United Democratic Movement leader Mario Masuku.

Disgust

Artists' manager Gaenor Becker said actors do not get fees for programme repeats, even though it is in their contracts, and 7de Laan actor Vinette "Charmaine" Ebrahim said she was "disgusted" that production houses risked closure because they were not being paid.

The Imbabazane Cultural Organisation felt that African tradition was being sidelined and their female dancers expressed this view by joining the march wearing only traditional Zulu beaded skirts and necklaces.

"We want the SABC to broadcast shows we can be involved in - shows with African culture - because they are leaving us out," said Manto Makama.

Meanwhile, Archie the bulldog, wearing a Zulu beaded collar watched proceedings with canine reserve as he strutted alongside his master, post-production worker Guy Steer.

"They said it is the downslide in the economy, we say it is the mismanagement of funds," said Steer.

A similar protest was held at noon outside the SABC's offices in Sea-Point, Cape Town.

The protesters handed over a copy of the same memorandum to an SABC representative.

http://www.news24.com

MEMORANDUM TO: THE SABC BOARD AND EXECUTIVE

2009-06-06T17:48:00.001+02:00

MEMORANDUM: 4 JUNE 2009

TO: THE SABC BOARD AND EXECUTIVE

The Television Industry Emergency Coalition is calling for a transparent, fair, responsible and sustainable SABC that upholds the values of our democracy.

The independent production sector faces a crisis resulting from the SABC not fulfilling its existing contractual obligations. The SABC owes millions of rands to companies and individuals which has resulted in job losses, companies teetering on closing down and extreme financial insecurity. We believe the SABC has been disrespectful and reckless in its dealing with our industry.

We want an SABC that respectfully engages the South African public, and its key partner in content supply - the local production sector, which includes writers, directors, actors, technicians, musicians, producers and suppliers of equipment and services.

We are committed to building a sustainable and responsible production sector that is able to meet the demands and needs of our democracy and economy, and offer sustainable employment in line with the objectives of our government.

Our sector has huge capacity for job creation and we are committed to growing and developing skills.

Our industry has paid a heavy price for the management and financial crisis at the SABC which has lead to company closures, retrenchments and job losses.

We have lost faith in the current board and executive management of the SABC.

We believe that the independence, integrity and sustainability of the SABC has been severely damaged by both the current and previous SABC administration.

Both the SABC and our sector need to be protected from further abuse and mismanagement.

This current crisis has been long in coming. It is deep and structural and must be addressed with urgency.

WE ARE THEREFORE CALLING FOR THE FOLLOWING:

• The current board and the Chairperson of the board to step down so as to pave the way for a new independent board which is legally constituted without political interference to be put in place. The current impasse has been extremely damaging to public broadcasting and the entire industry.

• The commitment to a payment plan for outstanding debt to the independent production sector. In addition, we call for a transparent system in which the outstanding "contractual obligations" which have been held up by the SABC's own cumbersome bureaucracy are dealt with timeously.

• The appointment of executive management who can provide skilled, effective and enlightened leadership of the organisation.

• A structural overhaul of the SABC– with a broad review of policy and management. The appointment of two successive political boards has eroded the core functioning of the organisation and has distorted the management of it.

• A complete review of the terms of trade with the independent production sector. The past 5 years has seen incrementally prejudicial contracts in which independent producers have been forced to take all the risks without any autonomy. Producers have been reduced to quasi-employees of the organisation yet with none of the security or benefits.

• An end to the excessive bureaucracy that has left both the SABC and independent production sector crippled

• An immediate stop to the exploitative practices of the SABC with regards local content including price- fixing, micromanagement, editorial abuse by commissioning editors, and any form of blacklisting or bullying.

• An end to the shameful practice of price-fixing on actors and presenter’s fees, and determining who may or may not work.

• An end to the reluctant payment and non-payment of contractual repeat fees for actors, writers, musicians and producers.

• An end to the dishonourable and unfair practice of the SABC claiming ownership of intellectual property rights. This practice has resulted in the independent production sector being unable to build sustainable stable trade. Writers, directors, actors and producers work a life time creating content and never owning a thing they create. Intellectual property should belong to its creators and not to a public corporation. This is real citizen empowerment.

• An immediate suspension of the current SABC executive's powers to determine any reduction in local content or the fees associated therewith. The independent industry is already on its knees and cannot bear the brunt of the SABC’s financial crisis.
• An external review of SABC's compliance with ICASA regulations and license conditions. In addition, we are concerned that ICASA’s role as the regulator of the sector as a whole and as licensor of the SABC will be undermined unless ICASA urgently intervene in the crisis. And specifically that it should hold a public hearing before Council on the SABC’s performance in relation to its licence conditions including fidicuary duties, payment of suppliers, local content obligations, terms of trade, etc.

• A real commitment to the process of commissioning programming in regions other than Johannesburg.

• A public enquiry into the processes and procedures which have reduced the SABC to its current crisis. This enquiry should look into the ideal of public broadcasting and the reason for its failings. This would enable the public and government to ensure that this does not happen again.

• A mandatory provision for industry representation on the SABC board.

• A renewed commitment to the ideals of public broadcasting and an independent, sustainable and enlightened public broadcaster which operates free from political interference and belongs to South Africa and all who live here.

In closing:
We the TVIEC are committed to building a vibrant and productive independent production sector.
We commit our support to President Zuma’s call to the nation to continue working to create a united cohesive society out of our fragmented past. To continue promoting unity in diversity and to develop a shared value system based on the spirit of community solidarity and a caring society.

We are committed to become active citizens in the renewal of our country and within our sector to work together, to help where we can to speed up its economic growth and sustainability and to create decent work and sustainable livelihoods for all in our industry.

The TVIEC thanks the following organisations for their ongoing support.

IPO IPO(Independent producer organisation)
Communication Workers Union
SASFED (South African Screen federation)
Young Communist League of South Africa
TPA (The producers alliance)
SAGE (South African Guild of editors)
CWUSA (Creative workers union)
SOS (Save our SABC)
AC (The actors coalition)
ATLAS studios
DFA (Documentary filmmakers association
BEMAWU (Broadcast, Electronic, Media and allied workers union)
SASWA (South African Screen Writers association)
Non affiliated film & TV creators, producers, actors & workers.
BFN (Black Filmmakers Network)

TV INDUSTRY TO STAGE NATIONAL PROTEST ACTION

2009-05-26T14:33:00.001+02:00

25 May 2009

PRESS RELEASE

TV INDUSTRY TO STAGE NATIONAL PROTEST ACTION AGAINST SABC ON 4 JUNE 2009

The television industry in South Africa is reeling due to the monetary and management crisis at the SABC. Crews and cast are without work, production companies are facing closure and viewers are being cheated of quality programming.

The Television Industry Emergency Coalition (TVIEC) was formed in response to the crisis. Together we represent more than 80% of the local content on air. In a meeting of the coalition in Johannesburg on 18 May it was decided to proceed with plans for a demonstration against the current management and administration of the SABC.

The protest has been provoked by the public broadcaster’s non-payment of millions of rand to independent producers and the subsequent retrenchments that are occurring throughout the industry. Estimates of up to R58-million owed have been made but it is not possible to confirm this amount as the SABC has been unwilling to reveal the extent of the debt. This amount does not take into account monies owed for royalties and repeat fees which artists, writers and producers have been struggling for years to elicit from the SABC.

The TVIEC is fighting FOR the SABC – for a transparent, fair and sustainable SABC that upholds the values of a credible and responsible public broadcaster, respectful of the South African public and its key partner in content supply – the local production sector.

Whilst the demonstration calls have been sparked by the anger over non payment, the TVIEC is convinced that the real issues are much deeper and more significant: unfair terms of trade, unsustainable business relationships with the content creators, unfair rights ownership (IP) and a deep arrogance manifested in the heavy handed management style the SABC displays.

Budgets are lower than they were seven years ago. Price fixing of fees for crew and cast and unsustainable production fees have left companies vulnerable and exhausted, while SABC management take home exorbitant fees and performance bonuses – some bonuses exceed an entire year’s production fee for a major daily soap – and enjoy first class air travel, 5 star hotel suites and lavish entertainment.

The Coalition has met repeatedly during the past months with a high level group of SABC executives but has received neither credible feedback nor action on commitments made by the SABC at these meetings. The Coalition is particularly dismayed that the CFO who is directly responsible for the fiscal management of the SABC - and thus the current non payment status quo - has not bothered to meet with the Coalition.

The industry has said NO MORE! A protest date has now been set for 4 June 2009. A TVIEC protest committee is coordinating participation by a broad spectrum of production companies, industry organisations, unions, friends of the industry, soapie stars, actors, technicians and the public at large.

Organisers have stressed that the campaign will be run in a responsible way, calling for immediate response to the demands for payment, for inclusive participation in the SABC’s turn around strategy and for interim management to be put in place to restore trust and integrity. It is anticipated that about 1,000 people will participate in Johannesburg and Cape Town.

The TVIEC is simultaneously attempting to engage with the new Minister of Communications and other government stakeholders to facilitate urgent intervention and alleviation for the industry. The TVIEC is also researching legal options and the possibility of collectively withholding material from the SABC.

The president has called for a new dawn, we hope this applies to the SABC.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION: tvcrisis@gmail.com

Lagadien steps down from SABC board

2009-05-21T09:49:00.001+02:00

Fadila Lagadien has resigned from the SABC board due to its lack of leadership, SABC radio news reported on Monday.

Lagadien was the third member of the current board to resign this year after Peter Vundla and Christine Qunta.

Lagadien told the broadcaster: "I sent through my resignation to the presidency on the 21st of April.

"You know, the reason I decided to resign was that I am just a bit concerned about the leadership on the board of the SABC or, let's say, the lack thereof, because the risk to me as a non-executive director is too great and I don't personally have the power to change things.

"It was a tough decision," she said.

SABC spokesperson Kaiser Kganyago said the SABC could not confirm the resignation because it did not possess her resignation letter. - Sapa

Encounters Documentary Festival in crisis

2009-05-20T16:31:00.000+02:00

Press Release

20 May 2009

Encounters Documentary Festival in crisis

The future of South Africa’s premier documentary festival, Encounters, hangs in the balance since its principal sponsor, the SABC, yesterday withdrew their financial support for the 2009 edition of the festival.
This is due to the SABC's new austerity measures. Encounters is now faced with the task of raising sufficient funds in the coming week if it is to take place as planned. The dates of the 2009 edition are 2 - 19 July in Cape Town. Unfortunately, Encounters already has had to withdraw from Johannesburg this year since the Gauteng Film Commission also withdrew its financial support.

"We are appealing to individuals, government and the corporate sector to come forward to help save the festival. We now have one week to solve our funding crisis", says Festival Director Mandisa Zitha.

The festival, now in its 11th year, showcases South African and International talent and promotes the growth of the documentary industry. Encounters has screened hundreds of documentaries to an
audience of over 80,000 people. It has commissioned over 40 documentaries and runs access programmes, out reach programmes, schools programmes, workshops, masterclasses and seminars.

Encounters is an important event on the annual film and festival calendar.

"We hope that we can still receive sufficient support to ensure a successful festival this year. We believe, if we can get through this current crisis we will be able to produce an even stronger 2010 edition" Zitha says.

Anyone who is able to provide financial support to the Festival is urged to contact:

Steven Markovitz
Email: steven@bigworld.co.za
Telephone: 021 4654686
Mobile: 083 2611044

New Video Breaks Down Fair Use Guidelines for Online Video Creators

2009-05-19T10:35:00.001+02:00

American University Washington College of Law’s Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property and AU's Center for Social Media, in collaboration with Stanford Law School's Fair Use Project, are launching a new video explaining how online video creators can make remixes, mashups, and other common online video genres with the knowledge that they are staying within copyright law.

The video, titled Remix Culture: Fair Use Is Your Friend, explains the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video, a first of its kind document—coordinated by AU professors Pat Aufderheide and Peter Jaszi—outlining what constitutes fair use in online video. The code was released July 2008.

“This video lets people know about the code, an essential creative tool, in the natural language of online video. The code protects this emerging zone from censorship and self-censorship,” said Aufderheide, director of the Center for Social Media and a professor in AU's School of Communication. “Creators, online video providers, and copyright holders will be able to know when copying is stealing and when it’s legal.”

Like the code, the video identifies six kinds of unlicensed uses of copyrighted material that may be considered fair, under certain limitations.

They are:
Commenting or critiquing of copyrighted material
Use for illustration or example Incidental or accidental capture of copyrighted material
Memorializing or rescuing of an experience or event
Use to launch a discussion
Recombining to make a new work, such as a mashup or a remix, whose elements depend on relationships between existing works For instance, a blogger’s critique of mainstream news is commentary.
The fat cat sitting on the couch watching television is an example of incidental capture of copyrighted material. Many variations on the popular online video “Dramatic Chipmunk” may be considered fair use because they recombine existing work to create new meaning.

“The fair use doctrine is every bit as relevant in the digital domain as it has been for almost two centuries in the print environment,” said Jaszi, founder of the Program for Information Justice and Intellectual Property and a professor of law in AU's Washington College of Law. “Here we see again the strong connection between the fair use principle in copyright and the guarantee of freedom of speech in the Constitution.”

Remix Culture: Fair Use Is Your Friend is a collaborative project of the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property—a program of AU's Washington College of Law—and the Center for Social Media—a center of AU's School of Communication—along with Stanford Law School's Fair Use Project. It was funded by Google.

Stacey Jackson-Roberts
American University Washington College of Law
4801 Massachusetts Ave., NW Washington, D.C. 20016
Voice: (202) 274-4445 Fax: (202) 274-4495

-------------
Source -

Heather Ford

Twitter profile: http://twitter.com/hfordsa

My blog
http://www.hblog.org/

My Google Profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/HFordSA

iHeritage: South African Heritage Online
http://iheritage.org.za

The African Commons Project
http://www.africancommons.org

skype: heatherford
aim: queenbea878

Phone: +27 11 327 3155
PO Box 1453, Saxonwold, 2132, Johannesburg

Banned Msholozi back on the airwaves

2009-05-18T10:49:00.003+02:00

The SABC has unbanned Msholozi, a composition by maskandi group Izingane Zoma in favour of president-elect Jacob Zuma becoming the president of South Africa. by Patience Bambalele
The song was yesterday played on Ukhozi FM for the first time since it was banned in 2006, when some listeners complained that it was “political, controversial and distasteful”. Among them were women who were offended by a song praising a man who had been charged with rape.

Shobeni Khuzwayo, the producer of the group, said: “I got a call from Welcome Nzimande (Ukhozi FM station manager) yesterday telling me that our song will be played on Ukhozi FM again ...”

SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said: “Ukhozi stopped playing the song because the cases Zuma faced were still on ... It wanted to give legal proceedings time to deal with the cases without the song’s pressure.”

Encounters South African International Documentary Festival 2009

2009-05-18T10:49:00.001+02:00

The 11th Encounters South African International Documentary Festival will be held in Cape Town only from the 2nd to the 19th July 2009.
After celebrating its 10th anniversary last year, the festival, for its 11th edition, returns to where it originated: the mother city. “The reason for not hosting Encounters in Johannesburg this year is that we have received limited funding as a result of the current global financial crisis”, Festival Director Mandisa Zitha explains.

The brand of the Festival will remain the same, though, Zitha reassures. “We have already programmed an exciting line-up of local and international films for this year. We believe this re-alignment will consolidate our brand, and compel patrons from different provinces to make the annual documentary pilgrimage to Cape Town every July”, she says.

The festival will be held at the Nu Metro V&A Waterfront in Cape Town for a total of 17 days after the opening night on 2 July.

The program will be online as from 1st June. Visit www.encounters.co.za for further information and booking details.

The festival is supported by:
SABC, NFVF, Cape Film Commission, Western Cape Government, The Times, Nu Metro, Tempest Car Hire, Exclusive Books, French Embassy, High Commission of Canada, British Council, Business Arts South Africa (BASA), MIPDOC, Goodman Gallery.

Film board gets recognition

2009-05-18T10:48:00.000+02:00

The South African Film and Publication Board has been granted membership of the International Association of Internet Hotline, it announced on Wednesday.
According to the FPB, South Africa is the first African country to join the umbrella body, known as Inhope, which fights child pornography and has 32 member countries across the world.

Its membership will give the FPB access to international working relations, a referral system, research and best practice to intensify the fight against child pornography.

The FPB said that of the 48 online reports its child protection unit had received in its first year of operation, six were confirmed child pornographic images and all were found to be hosted outside South Africa.

"With such cases at hand, the new membership with Inhope will therefore enable the FPB to report the child pornographic websites to the relevant countries for further intervention," said the FPB in a statement.

Cape Town Film and Broadcast Industry steps up a gear

2009-05-18T10:47:00.000+02:00

In another milestone towards cementing Cape Town and the Western Cape as South Africa’s leading film and broadcast industry destination the Cape Film Commission held a 2010 Film Imbizo at Green Point Stadium on the 28th of April.
Discussed where the specific requirements which the film industry would need to meet in order to become a service hub for international broadcasters, independent film crews and freelance broadcast journalists.

The Imbizo was attended by well over 100 people representing various production and equipment hire companies, location managers, scouts, freelance producers, scriptwriters, training service providers and film students.

The 2010 LOC Chief of Communications, Mr. Rich Mkhondo, who was the main speaker, lauded the Cape Film Commission and the film industry for being proactive in leading discussions on how the film and broadcast industry could benefit from 2010.

Mr. Mkhondo stated that even though there had been massive investment in infrastructure like building of stadiums and transport upgrades, the film and media industries also will stand to benefit from 2010 and that it would be important for Cape Town to be able to service the huge amount of foreign broadcasters and freelance journalists who will be following their respective teams around Cape Town.

He also highlighted the fact that beyond the soccer games, broadcasters and journalists would want to be able to access the Host Cities’ unique stories about their respective cultures, heritage and sports and this in itself provided the film industry with opportunities to package local content driven stories.

Laurence Mitchell, CEO of the Cape Film Commission said that the 2010 Showpiece presented the film industry with huge film, media, broadcast and content development opportunities.

“Cape Town and the Western Cape have become a global film and broadcast industry destination, and despite the fact that the International Broadcast Centre was lost to Johannesburg, many top international broadcasters will be based here in Cape Town for various reasons,” Mr. Mitchell said.

Mr. Mitchell further added that apart from the fact that these broadcasters would have access to world class production, post production and studio facilities, broadcasters want spectacular viewing and vantage points.

“No where else in South Africa would you be able to have from one vantage point spectacular views of an international landmark like Table Mountain, or Robben Island showcasing our history, or Green Point Stadium highlighting our soccer and the Waterfront linking Cape Town to it’s business and tourism hub, “ Mr. Mitchell was quoted as saying.

The Cape Film Commission (CFC) has already trained more than 500 people in various disciplines such as Fixers, Chaperones and Film Unit Liaison Officers, scriptwriting and use of HD Broadcasting equipment. In addition the CFC has partnered with Visual Impact to train 50 previously disadvantaged individuals to become Satellite and Electronic News Gathering support staff with a specific aim to be employed by various international broadcasters during 2010.

As part of broadening the marketing and promotion of the Western Cape’s various private and public film locations, the CFC also announced that it’s Location and Media Database with more than 5000 images will go live in May 09.

“This Online Locations Database will further extend the offering of Cape Town and the Western Cape as the premiere destination for film and broadcast related productions,” Laurence Mitchell said.

In responding to certain questions related to access to the City and the impact 2010 will have on film related activities, Pieter Cronje, the City of Cape Town’s 2010 Director of Communications, stated at the Imbizo that the final Fifa event and venue footprints are being finalized and these will be published once they are available.

The event and venue footprints largely relate to activities around the official fan park, fan mile, Green Point Stadium and certain areas that would be demarcated as Fifa zones.

Mr. Cronje also said that, “the draft by laws will be put in place to protect FIFA and their sponsors against ambush marketing from filtering into designated areas that will belong to FIFA during the event.”

The Cape Film Commission and the City of Cape Town will have a film industry briefing in September this year to clearly spell out these by laws.

“The notion that the entire City of Cape Town will be shut down for film related activities next year is nonsensical,” according to Mr. Mitchell.

New Bones for South African Film Industry

2009-05-18T10:46:00.000+02:00

Despite the apparent foot-dragging of government ministries, the burgeoning South African Film industry, the talents, skills and creativity, specifically of the Western Cape sector, have gained global recognition and kudos for their resourcefulness and attention to detail.
Competing with somewhat more established film and post-production hubs such as Brazil, South Africa has inevitably been playing catch up in an attempt to capitalize on its many positive offerings.

A recent multi-million Rand investment in the world-renowned “Bones Dailies” software by Waterfront Studios, a first for the African Continent, has given the local industry an unequalled opportunity to vie with the World’s best.

“Streamlining pipeline time has always been a major driver for the film industry, yet without “Bones Dailies”, Waterfront Studios were finding it difficult to reduce pipeline times and therefore costs”, says Jonathan San Juan, Waterfront Studio’s Chief Technical Officer, recently relocated to Cape Town from Los Angeles.

High-end digital post-production is crucial to the success of not only Waterfront Studios, more importantly it is essential for the industry as a whole.

“Whilst South Africa has been greatly admired globally from many aspects, the success of the South African film industry, particularly post-production could perhaps benefit from a more technologically advanced approach. Hence Waterfront Studio’s purchase of the “Bones Daily” platform”, continues San Juan.

Lauded as a prime destination for film makers and producers globally, South Africa, specifically Cape Town with its scenic locations and world class artisans, continues to expand.

The cost-effectiveness of South Africa as a film location has long been recognized worldwide with countless box office hits having benefited from South African expertise at a fraction of the costs normally associated with such professionalism.

“Viewed by some as an industry in its infancy here in South Africa, the appeal of Cape Town as a location for many reasons has grown significantly over the last few years”, adds San Juan.

Yet recognition of the huge skills base in South Africa and the huge earnings and potential earnings the industry brings into the country, is muted, particularly at a government level. Support for the industry, though available, is invariably so wrapped-up in bureaucracy, access to it is almost impossible.

The creation of an enabling environment by government, for filmmakers, complete with proper development, quality control and financial efficiency would strengthen the industry and encourage not only public sector investment but heightened opportunities for profitability.

A capital investment in the form of a grant would further push the South African film and post-production industry onto the world stage. Plaudits for the success of the industry are readily accepted by government ministers who have done little if anything to support it.

“With the advent of the “Bones Dailies” technology and associated software, South Africa is more than just catching up with the rest of the world. Increased investment in such technologies will only make South Africa that much more of a player in what is a very competitive global market”, ends San Juan.

“Bones Dailies” looks set to unearth incredible growth in the industry, leaving the skeletons of old technology behind.

WRITTEN REPRESENTATIONS BY THE CIVIL SOCIETY COALITION: SAVE OUR SABC – RECLAIMING OUR PUBLIC BROADCASTER, ON ICASA’S DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL TELEVISION R

2009-04-29T16:33:00.000+02:00

WRITTEN REPRESENTATIONS BY THE CIVIL SOCIETY COALITION: SAVE OUR SABC – RECLAIMING OUR PUBLIC BROADCASTER, ON ICASA’S DIGITAL TERRESTRIAL TELEVISION REGULATIONS
_____________________________________________________________________________

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) in terms of the Electronic Communications Act (36/2005) published Draft Broadcasting Digital Migration Framework Regulations. The Regulations were published in Government Gazette, 3 October, Notice 1240 of 2008 with a deadline for comment of Friday 7 November 2008. Oral hearings were held on 1 December 2008. The Save our SABC: Reclaiming our Public Broadcaster (“the Coalition”) submitted written representations. The Coalition then presented at the oral hearings. At the oral hearings ICASA then gave all interested parties the opportunity to submit additional comments by 23 January 2009. The Coalition duly submitted these. ICASA then published in Government Gazette, 31 March, Notice 344 of 2009 the Digital Terrestrial Television Regulations (“the Regulations”) with a deadline for comment of 30 April 2009.

1.2. We, the Coalition thank ICASA for the opportunity to make these further written representations. (Please see annexure A for list of Coalition members.)

1.3. There are a number of issues the Coalition would like to address. These include: the definition of incentive channels, allocation of multiplexes, the public value test, and local content issues.

2. DEFINITION OF INCENTIVE CHANNELS

2.1. The Coalition has noted that ICASA’s definition of “incentive channels” does not include incentives to encourage audiences to move to digital, the incentives are rather to encourage broadcasters to take on the additional costs of the “dual illumination” period. The Coalition however believes it is critical to incentivise audiences to move to digital. If audiences fail to buy set top boxes all parties concerned will be adversely affected including ICASA, government (who wants to free up spectrum space), the existing broadcasters (who will have to bear the costs of the dual illumination period for longer), producers and of course the audience. The Coalition believes that the definition of “incentive channel” should reflect this important issue.

3. ALLOCATION OF MULTIPLEXES AND INCENTIVE CHANNELS

3.1. In the original draft Regulations ICASA allocated a specific number of channels i.e. 8 channels to each multiplex. The new approach appears to focus on the issue of capacity rather than specifying the number of channels. This is a positive development as it recognises that some channels might use less capacity than others.

3.2. However, there are still a number of gaps. In terms of the SABC the Regulations do not limit the number (or percentage of the multiplex) that the SABC could use for public commercial channels. In our two previous written submissions the Coalition has strongly made the argument that the SABC’s present funding model is unworkable at a number of levels – in particular it is unworkable in terms of its split between public and public-commercial channels. The original aim, as outlined in the Broadcasting White Paper, 1998, was for the public-commercial channels to cross-subsidise the public channels. SABC annual reports, however, provide no evidence of cross-subsidisation. Also, there have been clear indications from the SABC’s Chief Financial Officer, Robin Nicholson that the public-commercial TV channel SABC 3 has made significant losses. It appears therefore that the original purpose for having public-commercial channels has fallen away. As the Coalition has stated before, we therefore do not think that the SABC should be given any further public-commercial channels. All incentive channels should be authorised as public channels.

3.3. Further, in terms of e.tv and MNet, the Regulations have allocated 60% of the second multiplex to e.tv and 50% to MNet without stipulating the reasons for these particular allocations. The Regulations recognise that the remainder of these multiplexes will be reserved for new channels after the dual illumination period. But this suggests there will be unfair competition after the dual illumination period. For example if only one new commercial channel were to be licensed it would not have the same capacity as e.tv – let alone if more than one were licensed. This seems to defeat the purpose of migration i.e. to allow more players and competition.

4. PUBLIC VALUE TEST

4.1. As stated in the Draft Regulations, and now in the Regulations, authorisation of channels for public broadcasting will be subjected to a Public Value Test. As stated previously the Coalition supports the concept of the Public Value Test but needs to highlight certain gaps.

4.2. To summarise the Public Value Test:
o Focuses on a number of requirements including the level of educational programming; the distribution of different languages; the promotion of cultural diversity etc. in terms of each incentive channel.
o Insists the SABC include in all its applications for incentive channels a market impact analysis, including the implication of the proposed channel on diversity of programming, other DTT services and subscription television services.
o States that the authorisation process may be subjected to a public process (our emphasis).
o States the authorisation process will be concluded within 60 days “of the filing of the request for public service channel authorisation” (Regulation 9(3)).

Finally, the Public Value Test states that public commercial channels will not be subject to this process. They will be subjected to the same authorisation requirements as those set out for commercial services.

4.3. First, in terms of the gaps in the Regulations, the Coalition believes that the principles included in the Public Value Test, as it stands, assume that each channel will cover all the requirements listed i.e. educational programming, the distribution of different languages etc. In a multi-channel environment however the bouquet of PBS channels need to cover these principles as a whole. The Public Value Test needs to reflect this understanding. We propose, in line with the SABC’s own submission, that the Public Value Test be applied to the bouquet of PBS channels as a whole rather than to each incentive channel.

4.4. Second, the principles outlined above e.g. the need for educational programming, the coverage of various languages appear to be a reflection of some of the SABC’s Charter requirements but these are not clearly defined, measurable targets. As discussed in our previous submissions we believe the Public Value Test should rather reflect public value at three different levels - value for money, value to the individual citizen and value to society. In terms of “value for money”, the SABC needs to cost its offerings and demonstrate how it would be able to sustainably provide for these. In terms of “value to the individual citizen” the SABC needs to outline its proposed offerings and show how each channel would enhance diversity of content and language across its bouquet of public channels. Further, the SABC needs to demonstrate that a variety of different audiences would actually be interested in watching its programming. Finally, in terms of “value to society” the SABC needs to demonstrate that its offerings, across its bouquet of channels, will contribute to the deepening of democracy, the fulfilment of its goals outlined in its Charter and ensure greater diversity of content within the broadcasting environment as a whole. ICASA needs to specify the kind of documentation required to demonstrate the above. The Regulations as they stand do not require the SABC to demonstrate it has the necessary funds to run these channels – nor do the Regulations require the SABC provide a detailed programming schedule. The Coalition however believes that this is critical information that must be provided in terms of the Public Value Test.

4.5. Third, there is no clear indication that ICASA will be conducting the Public Value Test, there is only an indication that they will be finalising this process. The Regulations need to specify clearly that ICASA will be conducting the authorisation process in its entirety. Further, there needs to be more information on the steps included in the Public Value Test process.

4.6. Fourth, as discussed in our previous submissions, the Coalition believes that ICASA should make all reasonable efforts to inform and educate people about the Public Value Test - what it is, why it is important, and how it is being applied, and how to get involved. This will inform citizens on a matter of great importance to them. It will also indirectly serve the needs of broadcasters as it will encourage public participation. This will serve to enhance any application they make in terms of the Public Value Test.

4.7. Fifth, linked to the above, we want to reiterate the positions we have put forward in our previous submissions that public participation must be included as an essential component of the channel authorisation process.

4.8. Sixth, we want to reiterate our argument made in 2.1 above that no new public commercial channels should be allocated to the SABC so the need for public commercial channels to be exempted from the Public Value Test falls away.

4.9. Seventh, the Regulations are not clear about what happens if the SABC fails to propose channels that are acceptable to ICASA. There is no stipulation that the SABC (or MNet or e.tv) have to use their allocations or face losing these. The Coalition is worried that the SABC may not be in a position to start any of the new services envisaged due to its lack of resources. It is also conceivable that e.tv and MNet simply use content they already hold (repeats and excess inventory) to fill the space. If this is the case there will be no incentive for audiences to buy set top boxes and to migrate to digital. The incentive to migrate will only be compelling if excellent new content is on offer. The Coalition therefore suggests that if broadcasters don’t take up their allocations then they should be faced with competition from new players.

5. LOCAL CONTENT REGULATIONS

5.1. The Regulations do not address the critical issues of local content and language requirements, except briefly in the Public Value Test. This is a serious oversight. Local content regulations have been an important cornerstone of regulation from the passing of the original Independent Broadcasting Act, 1993.

5.2. Further, what is worrying is that MNet and e.TV have stated clearly that they do not want to be encumbered with any local content requirements. The Coalition believes that all broadcasters must be regulated in this regard. Our hard won gains in terms of ensuring viewers have access to local content and that local content industry is developed, will be seriously undermined if this is not enforced. ICASA needs to pronounce on these issues.

3. CONCLUSION

4.1 The Coalition thanks ICASA for the opportunity to make these further written representations and trusts that its concerns will be addressed.

4.2 Please do not hesitate to contact Ms Kate Skinner, the Coalition’s Campaign Coordinator, (contact details provided below) should ICASA have any queries or require any further information with regard to this submission.
Cell: 082.926.6404.
Email: kate.skinner@mweb.co.za

Request for Nominations: Council of Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA)

2009-04-29T16:30:00.002+02:00

Institutions and/or individuals are hereby invited to nominate persons to fill a vacancy on the above-mentioned body, as established in terms of the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa Act, No 13 of 2000.

The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa makes regulations and policies to govern broadcasting and telecommunications in the public interest. Its functions include:

Ensuring fairness and a diversity of views
Monitoring the environment
Enforcing compliance with rules, regulations and policies
Hearing and deciding on disputes and complaints by the communications industry
Planning and managing the frequency spectrum
Protecting consumers from unfair business practices, poor quality services and harmful or inferior products
Persons appointed must:
Be committed to fairness, freedom of expression, openness and accountability
Be representative of a broad cross-section of the population of the Republic
Possess suitable qualifications, expertise and experience in the fields of, amongst others, broadcasting, electronic communications and postal policy or operations, public policy development, electronic engineering, law, marketing, journalism, entertainment, education, economics, finance or any other related expertise or qualifications
Be a South African citizen, permanently resident in the Republic
Written nominations must contain the full name and address of the institution and /or individual making the nomination, the nominee's signed acceptance of the nomination and his / her Curriculum Vitae, providing at least the following information:
Full name, ID number and gender
Contact address, telephone and fax numbers, e-mail address
Previous experience (quoting dates and organisations concerned).Academic qualifications.
Nominations must reach the Committee Secretaries: Rita Schaafsma at rschaafsma@parliament.gov.za or Noluthando Skaka at nskaka@parliament.gov.za by no later than 8 May 2009.
Enquiries: tel: Rita Schaafsma: (021) 403-3742 / cell 083 709 8412; or Noluthando Skaka (021) 403- 3751 or cell: / 083 709 8520.

Issued by: Ms N Madlala-Routledge, MP: Deputy Speaker, National Assembly

Thank you,

Mlulami Dodo
Parliamentary Monitoring Group

Website: http://www.pmg.org.za
Access to all Parliamentary Committee information
Email mlulami@pmg.org.za
Tel 021 465 8885

SABC BOARD ANNOUNCES SWEEPING CHANGES TO ENSURE STABILITY

2009-04-29T16:25:00.001+02:00

MEDIA STATEMENT

Johannesburg, 28 April 2009- The SABC Board today announced that the contract of the Head of News and Current Affairs, Dr Snuki Zikalala, will not be renewed when it expires at the end of the month. This decision follows a special board meeting held in Johannesburg on Saturday.

Kanyi Mkonza, Chairperson of the SABC Board, who announced several changes to bring about stability to the organisation, said "The Board acknowledges the leadership and vision provided by Dr Zikalala in establishing SABC News as an international brand. He surfed through difficult waters and yet remained committed to building SABC News. He was the overall leader of our news team during the last two election periods. His sterling contribution has, once again, been given a stamp of approval by Media Monitoring Africa which hailed our election coverage for its fair and balanced reporting."

The Board, however, felt that it was time to hand over the baton to someone who can bring fresh ideas to the broadcaster. Veteran journalist, Mr. Phil Molefe, will act as Head of News and Current Affairs with effect from 1 May 2009 whilst the board embarks on a thorough search for Dr Zikalala' s replacement. The Board will appoint someone with relevant skill and expertise to take our complex news operation forward.

Some of the changes within the news division include the closure of, at least, three news bureaus. These are Jamaica, Kinshasa and reducing the US bureaus to two. "We are encouraged by the decision to reduce the bureaus; however, we continue to urge management to take effective steps to increase efficiencies across the entire news-value chain, including the regions and the remaining foreign operations" Mr. Bheki Khumalo, Chairperson of the News Committee said.

The Board also decided to review the appointment of the COO and accordingly referred the matter back to the Acting Minister of Communications, Dr Manto Tshabalala-Msimang. This is done in order to ensure that the Minister applies her mind to the original recommendation of the previous board. The Board believes that this will assist in finalizing the appointment of the COO for the SABC - a position that has been vacant since 2007. In the meantime, the Board will continue its search for a suitable candidate for the Group Chief Executive Officer with the advert extended till end of May.

In order to continue with the process of improving efficiencies within the corporation, the Board has taken a decision to reduce the committees of the board to six. These will be able to accommodate all business units and activities of the organization. These committees include the legislated content committees such as: Public Broadcasting Services and News; Public Commercial Services; Audit and Risk; Finance, Investment and Procurement; Governance, Nominations and Remuneration as well as Group Executive Committee (at an operational level). The Board also established the Ad Hoc Committee on the FIFA 2010 World Cup. This will be buttressed by an additional committee to give more focus to the Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) issues.

The Board remains concerned about the state of finances of the corporation. It will work around the clock to ensure that the Turnaround Strategy announced a few weeks ago bears some fruit. Accordingly, the board received a briefing from the CFO, Mr. Rob Nicholson, about the state of finances of the organisation. "We continue to monitor this on an ongoing basis with a view to returning the organisation to a healthy financial position," Ms. Mkonza said.

The Board took exception and condemned unreservedly the actions of some SABC members who unjustifiably leak information about the organisation to the media. The Sunday Independent, in particular, has become a convenient outlet for these elements, though it is fully within its rights to publish what it wishes, within the law.

We have requested internal audit to conduct a thorough investigation and even to refer these misdemeanors on the part of SABC members to relevant law enforcement authorities. These leaks, indulged in recklessly and often feeding false material, damage the reputation of individuals as well as that of the SABC. The leaks run counter to the collegiate and collective spirit of an organisation such as the SABC, and endanger stability.

It should be noted that the Board is determined to bring fundamental stability to the organisation. "The Board believes that the bold steps we have announced today marks the initial steps of the long and arduous journey towards establishing a stable public broadcaster of the highest quality to serve our country's hard earned democracy", Mkonza concluded.

ENDS

Issued By: Group Communications on behalf of the Board of the SABC

Media Enquiries: Kaizer Kganyago (SABC Spokesperson) 082 306 8888
________________________________

Disclaimer: Everything in this email and its attachments relating to the official business of the SABC is proprietary to the SABC. If the email is used other than for official business of the SABC or the views and opinions expressed in the email are not authorised by the SABC, the views and opinions expressed are those of the individual sending the email.
The content of this email is confidential, legally privileged and protected by law. The person addressed in the email is the sole authorised recipient. Please notify the sender immediately if this email and its attachments have unintentionally reached you; do not read, copy, disseminate or use the content in any way and delete the email and any copies of it.
Whilst all reasonable precautions are taken to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the information, and that this email and its attachments are free from any virus, the SABC accepts no liability however arising or responsibility whatsoever in this regard, and in keeping with good computing practice, the scanning of files and attachments is advised.

Issa Sikiti da Silva
Senior Journalist
cell: +27 83 207 1243
fax: +27 11 234 7323
email: issa@bizcommunity.com
www.bizcommunity.com

Letter to SABC Executive and Board

2009-03-30T12:01:00.003+02:00

From IPO, SESFED & TPA

Attention: Ms Kanyisiwe Mkonza – Chairperson SABC board
Mr G Mampone - Acting Group CEO SABC
Mr Robin Nicholson - Chief Financial Officer SABC
Ms Charlotte Mampane – Acting Chief Operating Officer SABC
25 March 2009

Dear Sir/Madam

The Television Industry Coalition (“TVIC”) has come together in response to the current
monetary and management crisis that is unfolding at the SABC.

The TVIC is driven by the IPO (Independent Producers Organization), SASFED (South African
Screen Federation), TPA (The Producers Alliance) and non-aligned producers and includes
equipment suppliers and facilities representing many of South Africa’s most popular shows such
as Nomzamo, Isidingo, Generations, A Place Called Home, Strictly come Dancing, Tsha Tsha,
Khululeka, Relate, Tshisa, Mtunzini, Erfsonders, The Lab, Home Affairs, Unsung Heroes,
Hopeville, Moferefere Lenyalong, Drawing the Line, Zone 14, Late Night with Kgomotso, uGugu
no Andile, Takalani Sesame, Askies, Redemption and Stokvel, to name but a few.

We are concerned about the impact the SABC crisis is already having on our industry in terms of
decision making, budgets and payments, and also how this will escalate over the next few
months. We are concerned that the independent sector will not be consulted in the “turn
around” strategy and solutions posed by the SABC, and that our sector will end up carrying
much of the SABC’s financial crisis. We are also concerned about the future impact on local
content in terms of quantity and quality.

These concerns may be misplaced but as we have had no communication from the SABC in this
moment we feel compelled (as a central contributor to, and partner in, the SABC’s business) to
request a formal meeting to discuss the issue.

We would like to ensure that the interests of independent producers, suppliers and our
audiences are represented in the resolution of the current funding and management crisis at
the public broadcaster.

We wish to state that we cannot condone any form of mismanagement or abuse of funds of the
public broadcaster and what are essential services for South Africans. Television and radio are
one of the most powerful tools for building and shaping our society and values and the coalition
is committed to an on-going dialogue with our audiences and responding to their realities,
hopes and dreams. The quality, quantity and relevance of content that is screened on public
television is of central concern since this affects not only the broadcaster and the local content
providers, but most importantly the South African viewing audience.

The independent production sector is the lifeblood of the public broadcaster providing high
quality local content in line with the SABC’s mandate from ICASA and drawing in millions of
viewers. While we realize that these are hard economic times, we seek to collaborate with the
SABC to avoid unnecessary insolvencies, job-losses and to avert any compromise in terms of
local programming. Local content not only drives revenue for the broadcaster but also plays a
vital role in the lives of millions of South Africans - entertaining, educating, nation building and
re-affirming our identity.

The TVIC believes that it can play an active role in the SABC formulating new strategies for cost
reduction, new sources of revenue and sustainability. We have a dual interest in a healthy
public broadcaster, in terms of our businesses, and in terms of our duty to the national
audience.

In the light of this we urgently wish to gain clarity on the following issues which are of critical
importance to our associates:

1. Can you meet your contractual financial obligations for the rest of the financial year on
active and outstanding contracts?
2. Can you pay the money you owe on final payments on programmes already delivered,
and if so, could you provide a time-line for that payment?
3. Will you be able to commission and pay and for the projects that you have got RFPs out
for currently?
4. Have you got money to honour outstanding and future royalties, residuals and repeat
fees owed to the independent sector?
5. What processes are you considering that will directly affect the independent production
sector?

In the past, broadcast policy and management decisions have been made largely without
industry consultation. International precedent shows that this is not the way forward and now
that the SABC is in crisis, the coalition is determined to be heard. The survival of our companies
and our industry is at stake. We therefore request an urgent meeting between yourselves and
a delegation of our members to discuss these matters and would appreciate a response by
noon on Friday 27th of March 2009.

Yours Sincerely

The Television Industry Coalition
Contact c/o:
Melody Emmett
Tel: (011) 719-4000
Fax: (011) 719-4090
Cell: 083-600-9554

Liquidation threat to SABC

2009-03-09T14:32:00.000+02:00

A firm of attorneys, Barry Aaron and Associates, has instituted a civil action against the public broadcaster SABC for failure to pay R450,000. The lack of action on the part of the SABC to pay the Johannesburg-based firm tends to confirm the dire financial situation that the Corporation is said to be in.

A month ago the Sunday Independent reported that the SABC had a deficit of R500m and more recently the Mail & Guardian reported that the deficit was in fact R700m.

The civil action which is before the Johannesburg High Court will force the SABC to go to court to stop a liquidation order against it. Lawyer Barry Aaron said that the SABC owed him money for services the firm rendered in a legal battle between the SABC and the National Lottery Board over the Winikhaya television competition, which the board wanted axed.

According to a report in The Times, SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago, the deficit figure of R700m was exaggerated and that the public broadcaster would hold a news briefing to clarify the matter.

An investigation by auditors Deloitte on behalf of the department of communications has revealed that in-fighting between the SABC board and its executive is partly to blame for the situation in which the corporation finds itself.

Aaron’s application to liquidate the SABC is due to be heard by the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday 5 March. In the meanwhile Kganyago has said that they have prioritized Aaron’s payment for this week.

The trade union BEMAWU (Broadcast, Electronic, Media and Allied Workers’ Union) has made allegation of financial mismanagement by the broadcaster. COSATU (Congress of South African Trade Unions) has also sent a circular email titled “COSATU shocked at SABC deficit reports” in which it cites examples of the various allegations made by the broadcast union.

“We have been informed the SABC has not paid most of its creditors and soon the SABC will be liquidated,” said Hannes du Buisson, of BEMAWU.

“Our concern is that there appears to be no financial discipline in the SABC and, if we continue in this way, there will be job losses.

“We are at a point where we can’t trust the board with the finances of the SABC.”

The broadcaster has blamed its financial woes on the global economic meltdown, but this has been disputed by the union.

“We are not saying this is not a contributor but we are saying it is definitely not the main contributor,” Du Buisson told The Times.

Union warns SABC’s survival in jeopardy

2009-03-09T14:31:00.001+02:00

Union warns SABC’s survival in jeopardy

It has emerged that an increase in SABC licence fees may be implemented in order to alleviate some of the financial burden that the corporation is facing. At a meeting last Wednesday 25 February between public broadcaster SABC’s chief financial officer, Robin Nicholson, and officials of the Broadcast Electronic Media and Allied Workers' Union (BEMAWU), Nicholson told trade unionists that the SABC had approached Parliament for permission to increase licence fees.

BEMAWU, president, Hannes du Buisson, who was present at the meeting told the Mail & Guardian that Nicholson said the SABC was R700m in the red. This figure was denied by SABC spokespercon Kaizer Kganyago. In February, Nicholson was called by Parliament to give account for the financial crisis which as that time was estimated to be a deficit of R500m.

According to Du Buisson, plans were discussed with the SABC to rectify the dire situation. This included ceasing new recruitment unless absolutely necessary and an application to Parliament for permission to increase licence fees. It would appear that freelance budgets have already been cut but there would be no staff retrenchments.

"The SABC is currently in a R700-million deficit. Immediate plans to rectify the situation were discussed and the SABC will cease recruitment unless it is absolutely necessary to fill a position. The SABC will also make a recommendation to Parliament to increase TV licence fees," Du Buisson noted in a memo seen by the Mail & Guardian.

On Thursday Du Buisson also told the M&G that the corporation's chief financial officer indicated that advertising revenue, which normally contributes about 85% of revenue, "was drastically down".

According to a circular email from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) which Screen Africa also received, a number of allegations by BEMAWU have been made which “paint a damning picture of greed and mismanagement at the SABC which could explain how the deficit built up”. Among the allegations are that senior management went to the Beijing Olympics on SABC cost and senior management have all received performance bonuses whilst “they have clearly not performed”.

Sub-Saharan to receive VoxAfrica free-to-air programming

2009-03-09T14:29:00.000+02:00

GlobeCast announced in Dubai on Tuesday 3 March that its African DTH platform has successfully started transmissions on SES ASTRA’s Astra 4A (Sirius 4) satellite. African broadcaster VoxAfrica is one of the first channels to sign up for the new platform which provides sub-Saharan Africa’s widest and most powerful coverage.

The new platform on Astra 4A, located at 5° East is the first Ku-band DTH platform with coverage over sub-Saharan Africa, providing broadcasters with the opportunity to reach households across the continent.

GlobeCast has contracted one transponder on the satellite that facilitates uplink from Europe and is compliant to distribute services to IPTV or terrestrial network headends. The new platform, which is an alternative to the pay TV bouquets in sub-Saharan Africa, responds to a strong demand for free-to-air Ku-band coverage of this crucial region.
Several African broadcasters are already in contact with GlobeCast to secure positions in this space and extend their audience to 56 African countries.

SABC R784m in the red

2009-03-09T14:28:00.000+02:00

Following reports earlier this week of lawyer Barry Aaron’s call for the liquidation of public broadcaster SABC, Acting CEO Gab Mampone admitted on 5 March at a Johannesburg press conference that the SABC expected a loss of R784m for the financial year end.

In the SABC’s official press statement, the reasons given for the “financial strain” were the global economic meltdown and the resultant decrease in ad revenue, the broadcaster’s funding model, rising costs of content, increase in universal access delivery, technology developments and the substantial expansion in news infrastructure. No mention was made of the costly legal battles between the SABC board and ousted former Group CEO Dali Mpofu.

According to Mampone, R400m of the current loss was attributable to loss in TV ad sales. SABC3 in particular had performed badly. However, he said the SABC plans to operate at a R55m profit next year and envisages a 14% growth in revenue by that time.

Financial manager Robin Nicholson noted that the corporation’s expenses had grown from R4.382bn last year to R5.595bn. He stressed that no permanent staff members would lose their jobs, although half of the 400-strong staff are freelancers.

The broadcaster’s digital migration process required a huge investment, as did preparations to broadcast the upcoming Confederations Cup and the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Gampone announced that the SABC would implement the Austerity Plan which involves the freezing of vacant posts, optimisation of TV licence revenue and continuous engagement with government to find solutions on the funding of the organisation.

Meanwhile Aaron has withdrawn his legal application for the SABC’s liquidation on the promise that he will be paid the R450,000 owed to him. (Source: Business Day)

SABC’s corporate governance under review

2009-03-09T14:23:00.000+02:00

As if public broadcaster SABC didn’t have enough problems to contend with (ie. its R784m deficit), a new report commissioned by Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri reveals that the overall effectiveness of the institution’s governance had been compromised by the many months of infighting between the SABC board and executive management.

Compiled by Deloitte & Touche, the report noted that the bad relationship had resulted in “a culture of mistrust of others’ actions”. This had led to board members becoming operationally involved in the SABC. Interviewees said that the board tends to operate “in crisis mode” and that its actual board duties had been over-ridden in its camppaign to suspend and dismiss former Group CEO Dali Mpofu.

Included in the recommendations made to the Minister was the holding of a workshop in which the board’s role and responsibilities could be clearly defined.

(Source: Business Day)

Meeting Their Mandates?

2009-03-09T14:21:00.001+02:00

Open Society Foundation produced in conjunction with a number of NGOs a book called "Meeting their Mandates? A critical analysis of South African media statutory bodies".

The book looks at ICASA, the SABC, the Media Development and Diversity Agency and the Universal Service and Access Agency of South Africa.

The research analyses the degree to which these media statutory bodies in South Africa are fulfilling their public mandates in terms of their contribution to media diversity and enhancing access to media and ICTs.

If you would like to get copies please contact Natalie Jacobs from OSF - natalie@ct.osf.org.za.

Useful links from Denise Nicholson

2009-03-05T12:10:00.004+02:00

Open Access, A2K and Scholarly Communication:-

Author’s Rights

http://library.case.edu/ksl/copyright/addendum.html

http://www.arl.org/sparc/author/addendum.shtml

http://scholars.sciencecommons.org/

Radio Berkman: Open Accessories

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/mediaberkman/2009/03/03/radio-berkman-open-accessories/

Signs that Social Scholarship is catching on in the Humanities

http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/2008/03/11/signs-that-social-scholarship-is-catching-on-in-the-humanities

Digital Humanities in 2008, II: Scholarly Communication & Open Access

http://digitalscholarship.wordpress.com/2009/02/24/digital-humanities-in-2008-ii-scholarly-communication-open-access

Lawrence Lessig on Open Access, Copyright and the nasty Conyers bill

http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2009/03/lawrence_lessig_on_open_access.php

Intellectual property:-

African Copyright & Access to Knowledge project (ACA2K)

www.aca2k.org and Blog - http://www.aca2k.org/index.php?option=com_idoblog&view=idoblog&Itemid=73&lang=en

Who owns the Haka?

http://reason.com/blog/show/132005.html

Intellectual Property Rights from Publicly Financed Research and Development Act 51 of 2008) (South Africa) (Commentaries)

http://blog.sabinet.co.za/2009/01/21/intellectual-property-rights-from-publicly-financed-research-and-development-act-51-of-2008

http://www.loc.gov/lawweb/servlet/lloc_news?disp2_1010_Intellectual%20Property

http://www.defenceweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=978&Itemid=366

http://aliquidnovi.org/?p=172

Kindles and "creative machines" blur boundaries of copyright

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/02/kindles-and-creative-machines-blur-boundaries-of-copyright.ars

Copyright and Copyleft in Publications

http://www.dailycal.org/article/104383/copyright_and_copyleft_in_publications

India Patents Yoga Poses From Western Thefts

http://living.oneindia.in/yoga-spirituality/yoga/2009/yoga-poses-theft-patent-western-countries-230209.html\

Indian Government moves to protect its culture

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2498718.htm

Open Access, A2K and Scholarly Communication:-

Opening Access to Knowledge in Southern African Universities

http://www.sarua.org/?q=content/opening-access-knowledge-southern-african-universities

Open Science: Good for Research and Researchers [Bora Zivkovic's Presentation at Columbia]

http://scienceblogs.com/seed/2009/02/bora_zivkovics_presentation_at.php

WorldWide Science Alliance

http://worldwidescience.org/alliancemembers.html

(South African member organization: CSIR - http://www.csir.co.za/)

Web Accessibility Initiative

http://www.w3.org/WAI/

Welsh Repository Network launched

http://digital-scholarship.org/digitalkoans/2009/02/23/welsh-repository-network-launched

Durham Statement on Open Access to Legal Scholarship

http://chrisbourg.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/durham-statement-on-open-access-to-legal-scholarship/

Google reinvents the Library

http://media.www.mcgilltribune.com/media/storage/paper234/news/2009/03/04/Features/Google.Reinvents.The.Library-3658298.shtml

WorldCat.org now available for mobile phones

http://www.oclc.org/news/announcements/announcement319.htm

Librarian Group Calls for Ending Publication of Law Reviews in Print Format

http://www.slaw.ca/2009/02/24/law-librarian-group-calls-for-ending-publication-of-law-reviews-in-print-format/

Open Learning Resources/Open Courseware:-

Commonwealth of Learning

http://www.col.org/resources/publications/crsMaterials/

http://www.col.org/resources/knowServices/Pages/default.aspx

http://www.col.org/resources/knowServices/copyright/Pages/default.aspx

The UMass Boston OpenCourseWare

http://ocw.umb.edu/

Korea University OpenCourseWare

http://ocw.korea.edu/ocw

Denise Rosemary Nicholson (Mrs.)
Copyright Services Librarian,
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg
The Library, Private Bag X1, WITS, 2050, South Africa
Tel. No. + 27 11 717-1929
Fax No. + 27 11 717-1946
http://web.wits.ac.za/Library/Services/COPYRIGHT.htm
http://web.wits.ac.za/Library/ResearchResources/SubjectPortals/Copyright+and+Related+Issues.htm

_______________________________________________
Copyrightanda2kinfo mailing list
Copyrightanda2kinfo@lists.wits.ac.za
http://lists.wits.ac.za/mailman/listinfo/copyrightanda2kinfo

Freedom of Expression Institute pushes for change to SABC law

2009-02-23T13:52:00.000+02:00

Legislation governing the SABC is set to change further, with the much-criticised Broadcasting Amendment Bill being further amended after President Kgalema Motlanthe refused to sign it into law.
by Jocelyn Newmarch

And the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) has renewed its efforts to have the SABC’s articles of association amended in line with legislation and to remove government interference in the broadcaster. The FXI says the articles are unlawful and unconstitutional and should be amended, and unless this is done by the end of next month, it has promised to seek a court order compelling the minister and the SABC to do so.

The FXI has sent a letter of demand to Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, SABC chairwoman Khanyi Mkonza and acting group CE Gab Mampone asking the SABC to amend its articles of association. The FXI say that the articles, last amended in 2006, are unlawful as a result of the high level of interference from the communications minister they permit in the affairs of the SABC. The articles conflict with the provisions of the Broadcasting Act and section 16 of the constitution, according to the FXI.

The problematic areas include the minister having veto power over the appointment of executive directors and the president having the power to appoint the chairman and deputy chairman of the board. The minister also has veto power over the appointment of the group CEO and can approve the terms of his or her contract.

The FXI has also objected to the level of control the executive arm of government exerts over the SABC. This arises because the presence of the communications minister, who represents the government as the sole shareholder, is automatically the quorum for the SABC’s general meeting. Since the SABC board is bound by the resolutions taken at the general meeting, this gives the executive arm of the government direct control over the SABC.

SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said this was a shareholder matter.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary portfolio committee on communications has amended the controversial Broadcasting Amendment Bill after Motlanthe refused to sign it into law, the committee said on Friday.

Courtesy of http://www.businessday.co.za

The reel deals

2009-02-23T13:49:00.001+02:00

"It's hard out there, I'll tell you that. Damn hard. You know, I walked into a certain film office to speak to them about financing with my camera switched on sitting right next to me on the table.
By Claire Angelique

"When they had finished giving me their normal spiel, about no money, yadda yadda, I said to them, 'You know, I'm actually from Carte Blanche, doing an exposé on the mismanagement of the film industry'. You should have seen their faces!" Darrell Roodt laughs cheerlessly, and although he is joking, the situation is sad. The state of South African film funding is dire and even the best writers and directors have to go to extreme lengths and engage in strange and complicated deals to make that "magic" happen on the screen.

However, although Roodt is pissed off about having to find the pennies to entertain the masses, he is looking quite sexy, relaxed and without a bead of sweat on his tanned face, despite Durban's notorious humidity. We're chatting near Durban's skate park at Snake Park. Behind us, his sound and camera men are grabbing "pick-up" shots, which will be used in a promotional video he's shooting, in the hopes of turning it into a TV series.
Titled Snake Park, it follows the misadventures of a young kid from a broken home who is sent to live with a grumpy old grandparent on Durban's Golden Mile, and who discovers he has a talent for skateboarding.
We sit watching the young kids involved in that day's shoot effortlessly glide across the concrete, Roodt agitatedly fingering his camera, aching to direct the action or at least film what his eyes are seeing

Though notoriously difficult to get hold of for interviews, he has given up a few minutes of his rushed schedule to shoot the breeze with lucky me, a fan and rookie of Roodt's, before rushing back to Johannesburg to edit the 70-minute piece. We're discussing, yeah, you guessed it, what film-makers all over South Africa are always discussing: the dry coffers of local film funding.
Darrell James Roodt is, arguably, South Africa's most famous and respected screenplay writer and director. From 1986's Place of Weeping, known as South Africa's first anti-apartheid feature film, which premiered in New York to critical acclaim, to The Stick, an anti-war film which was banned in South Africa for two years but became a success on the international festival circuit, his films are full of ideas and controversial subject matter. He has almost a fanatical love of cinema.

You can't mention a well-known South African film without Roodt having been there, seated in the director's chair. The controversial Sarafina (starring a young Leleti Khumalo), the Oscar-nominated Yesterday, Faith's Corner (both starring Khumalo), the rugby jersey-clad Colin Moss and Mandoza in the somewhat dodgy movie Number 10 and, more recently, 2008's Zimbabwe, are all Roodt creations. Then there was 2008's M-Net mini-series Ella Blue, which was widely acclaimed and launched a wide-eyed Nina Milner into South Africans' living rooms.

So, with nearly two decades of success behind him, why is Roodt battling with funding? "You know, it doesn't matter who you are. It's just hard out there. You've got to try every angle, you've got to be relentless if you want this as a career," he says, eyeing me sagely, then shakes his head, excuses himself and scampers off with his camera to capture some specific "thing" that's caught his attention.

Roodt is running a small crew for the promo. "We hardly have a budget, it's more of a budgie than a budget," he says. But it's not like he hasn't made miracles happen with even less before. Take 2005's Faith's Corner, a film that follows Faith, a street beggar, and her two young sons, Siyabonga and Lucky, who live on the streets of Johannesburg. Though coming from the dizzying heights of fame and moola Yesterday afforded the crew and cast, Roodt went low budget, deciding to shoot Faith's Corner with old film stock and a hand-cranked camera.

Last year's Zimbabwe, shot digitally and "on the fly", was also made on a shoestring, a hope and a prayer. "So if it's so hard out there, why do it?" I ask. "What's the point of all this hustling and late nights fraught with worry about money?" "It's because we have to do it," answers Roodt clearly. "We have to tell the stories of our time. And if we don't do it, who else is up for the challenge?"

Courtesy of http://tonight.co.za

Funds abused in SABC shows

2009-02-23T13:46:00.001+02:00

The Democratic Alliance asked the Public Protector on Monday to investigate the alleged abuse of state funds in some SABC broadcasts. This emerged from a letter - that was released to the media - from DA MP Motlatjo Thetjeng to the Protector, Lawrence Mushwana.
He has been asked to examine "three possible cases of abuse of state resources involving the department of housing and the department of agriculture as well as the abuse of the website of the SA embassy in Netherlands to promote the ANC".

The DA complained about the SABC 2 show Agriculture Today on weekdays between 05:30 and 05:55, and a programme by the housing department Breaking New Ground on Mondays at 22:00. Thetjeng said the purpose of these television programmes appeared to be to praise the work of these departments. There was little or no critical discussion about land or housing and "It is not clear whether the departments are paying for these programmes or the SABC is. If it is the SABC, this would be a scandalous abuse of their position as a public - not - political broadcaster," Thetjeng said. "If the departments are paying, it is a blatant misuse of money meant for service delivery."

Thetjeng also complained about the website of the SA embassy in the Netherlands placing a direct link to the ruling party's home page. "Placing a direct link to the ruling party's home page on a government website is a clear abuse of state resources and fundamentally undermines the constitutionally entrenched principle of separation of state and party," said Thetjeng.

The Protector's spokesperson, Kgalalelo Masibi, confirmed he had received the letter but said Mushwana has yet to read it. It was too early to say whether he would investigate the DA's complaints, Masibi said.

Courtesy of http://www.news24.com

SA to have a strong representation at FESPACO

2009-02-23T13:45:00.002+02:00

The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) in partnership with South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) and M-Net will officially participate at the 21st edition of the Pan-African Film and Television Festival (FESPACO).
Established in 1969, the festival, under the theme of “African Cinema: Tourism and Cultural Heritage” takes place from 28 February to 07 March 2009.

The three partners will host a South African Pavillion, where participants and delegates who wish to do business with South Africa can acquire information in television and film. “We are proud to once again partner with both the SABC and M-Net, as we are constantly looking to strengthen South Africa’s presence at this important African festival which also showcases the latest releases in African cinema and television.

South Africa is part and parcel of the development of cinema in the continent, and therefore an important link in the chain that promotes development and co-production. As we celebrate 40 years of FESPACO, we need to reflect on the legacy left by those who came before us, like Ousmane Sembene, Djibril Mambete and others”, said Eddie Mbalo, NFVF CEO.

South Africa was first represented at FESPACO in 2003 when the NFVF remarkably positioned South African film within the official programme of the festival. This year, the country will be highly represented in the official competition where films by South Africa’s esteemed filmmakers will be featured. Some of these films have been honoured and have won awards at festivals, including the Durban International Film Festival (DIFF), Kwamashu Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and Cannes International Film Festival. The NFVF will also host various South African documentary screenings daily at the festival, showcasing the best of the nation’s talent.

Every session of FESPACO includes the official competition, a highlight of this the biennial event of African cinema. The official competition is exclusively reserved for African and Diaspora Films. The competition is open for Feature films, Short films and Documentaries. The Diaspora competition is reserved for Feature films made by filmmakers from the Diaspora. Prizes for these competitions include amounts up to 2 000 000 F CFA. South African films that qualified to feature in the official competition are:

Feature Films:
Triomf - Michael Raeburn
Nothing But The Truth – John Kani
Jerusalema – Ralph Ziman
White Wedding – Jann Turner

Fiction TV/Video:
Gugu No Andile – Minky Schlesinger
The Last Supper – Ritendra Naran

Documentaries:
Courting Justice – Jane Lipman
The Manuscripts of Timbuktu – Zola Maseko

Series & Sitcoms TV/Video
When We Were Black

FESPACO will this year pay tribute to Ousmane Sembene, doyen of African film and pioneer of FESPACO, who passed away on 9 June 2007. He was one of the pioneers of African movie industry and a regular of FESPACO having attended nearly all the Festival's editions without a break from 1969 to 2005. Sembene made more than twenty films including 9 features, and always believed in and defended Africa’s cinema all over the world. Sembene endeavoured to promote FESPACO and to unite filmmakers across the continent and the development of African cinema.

To celebrate its 40th anniversary properly, FESPACO has invited eminent filmmakers, academics, writers, artists and communicators from all over the world. All of the film industry trades will be represented, from fashion, to music, and even politicians will join to celebrate cinema in Africa.

FESPACO remains a major and favourite platform for meeting and networking for film industry practitioners in Africa and globally.

Courtesy of http://www.nfvf.co.za

Imbongi Awards to recognize excellent within the film industry

2009-02-23T13:45:00.001+02:00

The highlight certainly for the Cape film industry will be the Imbongi Awards scheduled for the 25 April 2009. These awards will be recognizing, rewarding and honoring individuals and companies for outstanding achievement in pre-production, production and post-production work within the Cape film industry.
It thus all augurs well in 2009 for the Cape Film Commission as it sets out to intensify the leadership role it plays in shaping the future of the Cape film industry.

An industry which continues to astonish as it grows rapidly, but also an industry that needs to be recognized as an important player within the Western Cape economy.

Courtesy of http://www.capefilmcommission.co.za

MPs pass amended SABC bill

2009-02-23T13:44:00.001+02:00

The National Assembly having failed to get the bill allowing it to sack the entire board of the South African Broadcasting Corporation past the President agreed on Tuesday to amend it to bring it in line with the constitution. by Michael Hamlyn
The bill was sent back by President Kgalema Motlanthe because he felt that to sack the board without a proper enquiry was unconstitutional.

Although the opposition parties supported the amendment the DA, the IFP, the FF+, the ACDP and the ID all objected to passage of the amended bill.

DA spokesperson Dene Smuts pointed out to the House that the bill allows that the National Assembly may by simple resolution decide on the dissolution of the entire board for failure to discharge its duties, and by a further vote recommend five persons handpicked without public participation or transparency as an interim Board, which the President must appoint within ten days.

"We remain opposed to the bill because the proposition that an entire board can be evicted is destructive of the security of tenure without which an independent board cannot protect the journalistic freedom of its editorial staff," Smuts said,

"and because the installation of an interim board without any of the transparent, public, participatory selection procedures that normally apply is so clearly a further political ploy aimed at turning the SABC into an organ of the ANC, which itself has become an organ of the SACP."

The chai of the communications committee Ismail Vadi, defended the revised bill telling members that it was not sensible to allow the sacking of a single member of the board, but not the whole board if it became dysfunctional.

He said that other boards of state-owned entities become dysfunctional and have to be removed. The same should apply to the SABC.

The bill passed without division.

Courtesy of http://www.news24.com

ANC prepares to dislodge SABC Board

2009-02-23T13:42:00.000+02:00

The National Assembly yesterday adopted the Broadcasting Amendment Bill after making amendments that were necessary to bring it in line with the constitution. This came after President Kgalema Motlanthe referred the bill back to lawmakers.
by Siyabonga Mkhwanazi

ANC MP Khotso Khumalo, the party's communications portfolio whip, yesterday told The Star the committee was now waiting for Motlanthe to sign the bill into law. It would then summons the entire board to answer charges of failing to exercise its fiduciary duties.

Khumalo said this could happen before parliament is dissolved ahead of the April 22 national and provincial elections.

Motlanthe referred the bill back to parliament two weeks ago after expressing reservations about the constitutionality of a clause allowing for the entire board to be sacked - but making no provision for a proper inquiry. Opposition parties had also petitioned Motlanthe not to sign the bill, arguing that denying board members due process was a violation of the constitution.

ANC president Jacob Zuma was reported to have intervened and informed the party's study group on communications that they had to back down and agree to the proposed amendment.

Khumalo said yesterday the SABC board could be gone even before the election.

"As soon as the president signs the bill (parliament will summons the board)," he said, adding that one of the main charges against the board is that the SABC is running an overdraft of R500-million.

"It is one of the charges against (fired) chief executive officer (Dali Mpofu), but nothing is said (by the board) against the chief financial officer (Rob Nicholson)," explained Khumalo.

Khumalo also questioned the role of the board's audit committee in failing to address the financial crisis.

"The board should anticipate such issues and tell the National Treasury and parliament that they have a deficit," he said.

"Some of the issues include how the board has become (involved in) operational (matters), taking over procurement issues."

This related to the board's decision last year to overturn the SABC's procurement committee's recommendation to award the broadcasting rights contract for the 2009 Confederations Cup and 2010 Fifa World Cup, worth about R400-million, to local black-owned company Digital Horizons.

The board had instead intervened and gave the contract to Japanese company Sony, which has no black economic empowerment credentials.

Communications committee chairperson Ishmail Vadi also slated the board for its inability to address problems plaguing the public broadcaster.

Addressing the National Assembly yesterday, Vadi said the board had been unable to act on its legal mandate.

"It's locked into a conflict with its executive management. It's unable to provide effective corporate governance over a public entity. What must we do?" asked Vadi.

"The intention is to strengthen corporate governance and to ensure the board discharges its fiduciary responsibility effectively and honestly, and that is what is not happening. The SABC is facing a crisis," he added.

Courtesy of http://www.thestar.co.za

The “Save our SABC” Coalition Press Statement...

2008-12-03T09:00:00.001+02:00

...on the Passage of the Broadcasting Amendment Bill

25 November 2008

The “Save our SABC” Campaign, representing key trade unions, NGOs, CBOs and independent producer organisations has been at the forefront of a campaign to address the crises at the public broadcaster, the SABC, for some months. In our view, many of the crises stem from omissions in the Broadcasting Act, which governs the SABC and also in the flawed political process of appointing the current SABC Board.

The Coalition’s position has been that there needs to be a three-pronged approach to dealing with the crises at the SABC.
• To pass a Broadcasting Amendment Bill which addresses the immediate crises which includes, among a number of issues, the appointment criteria and process for board members;
• To engage in a process of removing some or all of the current Board members in accordance with the right to administrative justice and to appoint an Interim Board in the public interest; and
• To embark on a thorough legislative review process culminating in the passage of an SABC Act that addresses a number of key issues.

The Broadcasting Amendment Bill:

The Broadcasting Amendment Bill attempts to deal with some of the omissions in the Broadcasting Act, in particular the removal of individual board members and the board as a collective. However the Coalition notes that the Broadcasting Amendment Bill is narrowly focused and addresses only a single issue with regard to the current SABC crises, namely removal of the Board or individual members thereof. In the Coalition’s view the fact that the Broadcasting Amendment Bill addresses this critical omission is to be welcomed. Unfortunately, however, the Broadcasting Amendment Bill is too narrow to address even the immediate crises completely.

Way forward

Once the Bill has been signed into law and implemented, the following approaches need to be adopted:

• Removal of the Current Board and Appointment of the Interim Board
The Coalition wishes to place on record that it will be closely observing the process that Parliament is to embark on with regard to the removal of all or some Board members. In our view, it is critical that this process be beyond reproach. If due process (at the very least thorough investigation, proper notice, fair hearings, and an absence of bias) is not present, the entire removal process will not only be open to legal challenge but it will further give rise to public suspicion of on-going political interference at the SABC. Further, the Coalition wishes to place on record that it will also be observing the process of appointing the Interim Board (and indeed the new ordinary Board) closely. In our view, it is critical that this process, too, is beyond reproach. If the Interim and new ordinary Board members are not seen as being suitably qualified and appropriately independent of party political interests, this will give rise to public suspicion of on-going political interference at the SABC.

• Need for the Passage of an SABC Act
Given the narrow focus of the Broadcasting Amendment Bill, the passage of a new SABC Act is urgent. The Coalition is of the view that only a thoroughly revised SABC Act can address all of the ongoing crises at the SABC. However, this must be done with the fullest possible participation by the public, including by concerned civil society stakeholders.

The Coalition understands that the Department of Communications is in fact in the process of developing such a Bill. The Coalition would like to put it on record that such a process warrants the development of appropriate and carefully considered policy through a prior Green/White Paper process. We think it unfortunate that it appears that this might not happen. The Coalition nonetheless aims to be as prepared as possible to participate in all or any public processes around a new SABC Act and is to develop a thorough policy document addressing all of the key issues that require to be resolved urgently including:
o Improving the appointment criteria and process for board members
o Making a clear distinction between executive and non-executive board members, including in regard to appointments and removals
o Strengthening disqualification and conflict of interest provisions to safeguard the independence of the Board
o Providing for the removal of non-executive Board members by a Parliamentary process which requires due process
o Making provision for an interim board made up of suitably qualified people, appointed with the involvement of Parliament and which sits for a limited time period only.

For more information please contact:

Kate Skinner (Campaign Coordinator) – (082) 926-6404
Patrick Craven (Cosatu Spokesperson) – (082)821-7456
William Bird (Media Monitoring Project) - (082) 887-1370
Faiza Smith (Misa-SA) – (076) 995-9513

Broadcasting Amendment Bill solves some problems but important issues remain

2008-11-19T12:41:00.000+02:00

Press statement

18 November 2008

Today the Broadcasting Amendment Bill, primarily dealing with the removal of the SABC Board, will be debated and passed in the National Assembly. It should be signed into law soon after by the President. The “Save our SABC” Campaign, representing COSATU, the Treatment Action Campaign, a host of NGOs and CBOs including the Freedom of Expression Institute, the Media Monitoring Project, and the Media Institute of Southern Africa believes that important improvements have been made to Broadcasting legislation but key problems remain.

From the initial launch of the Bill the SOS Campaign argued that a piecemeal approach to legislative reform was not ideal. We have called strongly for the launching of a public consultative Green Paper, White Paper process leading to the promulgation of a new SABC Act. The SABC’s Charter, governance issues, finances and legal structure all need to be thoroughly debated and significantly revised.

The original Broadcasting Act, 1999 contains a number of serious gaps - certain of these will now be dealt with. First, the Act contained no provisions for the removal of board members by Parliament. Board members could only be removed on the recommendation of the Board itself - clearly a problem since the President appoints the Board on the recommendation of Parliament and thus logically Parliament should play a role in the removal of Board members. The new Broadcasting Amendment Bill now allows for the removal of individual board members through a Parliamentary process with clear criteria. Second, the Broadcasting Act, gives the President the right to appoint the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Board. The new legislation now, strengthening the independence of the SABC Board, calls on Parliament to make these recommendations. Third, the Broadcasting Act included no resignation provisions for Board members - again a major oversight which has been rectified.

The remaining problems however are not insubstantial. First, the Bill has not dealt with the issue of appointments and second its provisions for the removal of the Board as a whole have been weakened. In terms of appointments Parliamentary Portfolio Committee members have argued that they haven’t amended these clauses because it requires serious policy debate, better handled as part of a major legislative review process. But in fact SOS’s solutions were easy, simple and further absolutely critical to restore the public’s faith in the appointment process right now before a new SABC Act is passed. The Coalition called for greater public participation and greater transparency in the process and drafted specific clauses in this regard. Further, it included strengthened disqualification clauses barring public servants, members of Parliament, party office bearers and individuals with direct financial interests in the Broadcasting industry from being board members.

Further, the Coalition called for the gaps in the Broadcasting Act, 1999 around the appointment of executive members to the Board to be dealt with. This gap has lead to continuous litigation. Following international best practice SOS drafted a simple clause saying that the executive members of the board should be appointed by the non-executive members of the Board without interference from the Minister. This gap has been left untouched.

Finally, in terms of the removal of the Board as a whole these sections have been weakened by the fact that it is now easier to remove the board. Previously Parliament needed to prove that the Board had not fulfilled its fiduciary duties, complied with its Charter and further had not controlled the affairs of the Corporation. The word “and” was removed and “or” put in its place. The Board can now be removed for a single reason.

Since these issues have not been dealt with in the Broadcasting Amendment Bill it becomes even more imperative that government commits itself to and implements a major broadcasting legislative review process.

THE ARTERIAL NETWORK NOVEMBER 2008 | NEWSLETTER

2008-11-04T13:56:00.003+02:00

Welcome to the November newsletter from the ARTerial Network. The ARTerial Network is an informal, dynamic network of individuals, organisations, donors, companies and institutions engaged in the African cultural sector.

The Network was formed to support the effectiveness and growth of the African arts and culture civil society and to enhance the sustainability of creative industries in Africa.
African World Summit on the Arts The National Arts Council of South Africa hosted an African Dialogue on the Arts from 26-28 October in Cape Town as part of the preparations for the fourth World Summit on the Arts and Culture to be held in Johannesburg from 22-25 September 2009. About 35 delegates from a range of African arts councils, funding agencies and ministries met to consider themes for the Summit, as well as the legacy that the Summit should leave after its first edition in Africa.
The Summit is an initiative of The International Federation of Arts Councils and Culture Agencies which "aims to create an international resource and meeting ground for all those whose public responsibility it is to support excellence and diversity in artistic endeavour."

The theme for the 2009 summit is "Meeting cultures: creating meaning", with the arts viewed as an important vehicle to promote intercultural dialogue.
A Steering Committee comprising representatives of the National Arts Council, the Department of Arts and Culture, the City of Johannesburg and IFACCA is in place to drive the content and logistics of the Summit. The African Dialogue ended with the appointment of a Task Team comprising an NAC representative, IFACCA Board member Quresh H.Ahmed from Kenya, Marc Nkeitar of Creative Africa and Mike van Graan, Secretariat of the ARTerial Network to plan and drive the legacy component of the Summit.
An ARTerial Network meeting is planned alongside the Summit to ensure maximum participation in the summit by African delegates.

http://www.oncrm.co.za/references/resource?onRN01=bAlu.U3lZCWDMix0eXSlOklPm
odlqA3U70lyOCI5gaNN&fileName=/AN_Newsletter_1/group_photo.jpg

Contact the ARTerial Network Secretariat.

If you wish to make contact with the ARTerial Network or if you received this newsletter second hand and would like to be on our database, contact Margerie Vacle: margeriev@africacentre.net; Florence Mukanga: Florencem@africacentre.net or Mike van Graan mikevg@africacentre.net.

Second Session of Conference of African Union Ministers of Culture

2008-11-04T13:55:00.003+02:00

The theme of this session of African Cultural Ministers held in Algeria from 19-23 October 2008, was the harmonisation and coordination of cultural policies, programmes and activities contained in the Nairobi Plan of Action for Cultural and Creative Industries that emanated from the previous Ministerial gathering held in Kenya in December 2005, but which itself is an updated version of the Dakar Plan of Action on Cultural Industries adopted in 1992 by OAU Heads of State and Government.

Some of the priority areas outlined in the Nairobi Plan are:
1.addressing the needs for statistical data on cultural and creative industries
2.institutional capacity-building at national, regional and continental levels
3.facilitating access to markets
4.improving infrastructure and working conditions for African artists
5.protecting African intellectual property and
6.reinforcing African ownership and leadership of the processes and strategies to realise the Plan

Numerous strategies outlined in the plan resonate with current and future projects of the ARTerial Network, including:

1.undertaking research into the economic impact of the arts on the African economy
2.collecting and disseminating statistical and general information in support of the African cultural sector
3.opening regional and international markets for African cultural goods and services
4.developing capacity so that African artists and entrepreneurs can derive the maximum benefit from their work
5.lobbying for policies and a legislative framework conducive to sustainable arts practice and better working conditions for artists

While the African Union unites governments on the continent and IFACCA coordinates parastatal funding agencies in Africa, the ARTerial Network could potentially play an important role in helping to unite and mobilise civil society in the implementation of this plan.

Update on the UNESCO Convention for the Promotion and Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.

2008-11-04T13:55:00.001+02:00

On 14 October 2008, Burundi ratified the UNESCO Convention for the Promotion and Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions bringing to 25 the number of African countries that have done so. Thus far, 92 countries have ratified the Convention which is an important tool for arts practitioners to lobby for greater support locally, and for developing countries to use to gain greater access to the markets of the developed world for their creative products.

Africa Fund for Arts and Culture

2008-11-04T13:54:00.004+02:00

Article 14 of the UNESCO Convention calls for the establishment of an International Fund for Cultural Diversity, particularly to assist the growth of cultural industries in the developing world.
The ARTerial Network Task Team proposed that an African Fund for Arts and Culture be established - along similar lines to the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture - in order to make resources available for the cultural sector on the continent. Various international donors have expressed interest in such a Fund as it would provide a continent-based mechanism, with African leadership, and with local capacity, to devise strategies relevant to the continent and to allocate funds in support of such strategies.
A research project - funded by DOEN and the Stromme Foundation - is currently underway to determine the viability, modalities, funding mechanisms, location and priorities of such a Fund.
One idea that has great currency is to approach FIFA and/or individual football federations and persuade them to contribute a percentage of every football ticket between now and the 2010 FIFA World Cup to be hosted in South Africa, to such a Fund so that it leaves a lasting legacy in the area of arts and culture too.

Arts Journalism Training Project

2008-11-04T13:54:00.003+02:00

The first ARTerial Network project arising out of the Gorée Island gathering, was an Arts Journalism Training Project coordinated by African Synergy, a Zimbabwean-based cultural collective.
Fifteen journalists (6 women and 9 men) from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Senegal, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Mali participated in the seven-day workshop which ran from 28 July to 4 August, using the Bushfire Festival in Swaziland as the backdrop.
The goals of the workshop - funded by Africalia and the Danish Centre for Culture and Development - were:
a. to raise standards and appreciation through on-the-job specialized training
b. to generate peer-to-peer contact by building and encouraging exchange
to motivate quality arts coverage within a pan-African ethos

An exceptional group of 6 mentors covered a number of journalism disciplines (especially print and film), according to their experience and track record.

All training was constructed around real-time production, actual writing and development of stories and production issues. As a result of the workshop, there are now at least fifteen journalists around the continent who can feed information to the ARTerial Network newsletter and website on a regular basis.
Given the success of this project, it is envisaged that follow-up training workshops will be held to provide more in-depth training, while similar workshops will be repeated in other parts of the continent.

The Economic Impact of the Arts

2008-11-04T13:54:00.001+02:00

The following is an edited extract from a media release issued by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on 15 August 2008:
"The Creative Economy Report 2008, released by UNCTAD/UNDP in April (see http://unctad.org/creative-economy) showed that global trade in creative goods and services grew by 8.7% annually from 2000-2005, making it one of the most vibrant sectors in world commerce. The value of exports of creative goods reached US$ 335.5 billion in 2005, according to figures reported by over 130 countries, while exports of creative services totalled $89 billion.

Trade in creative products is dominated by developed countries -- they account for about 90% of exports of music and audiovisuals, for example -- although the world's poorer nations have achieved rapid growth in the creative sector recently.

An UNCTAD database providing trade statistics on creative goods and services is available to the public at http://stats.unctad.org/creative. The statistics cover about 235 products related to heritage, arts, media and functional creations.
Trade in creative products is dominated by developed countries -- they account for about 90% of exports of music and audiovisuals, for example -- although the world's poorer nations have achieved rapid growth in the creative sector recently.

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An UNCTAD database providing trade statistics on creative goods and services is available to the public at http://stats.unctad.org/creative. The statistics cover about 235 products related to heritage, arts, media and functional creations.

The database's statistics are based on information reported by national sources to the United Nations. Currently the site shows global trade flows for 1996-2006. The statistics are available as tabular reports, country profiles, tables, and charts. Selected products are listed along with the major exporters/importers in major markets for such creative products as art and crafts, music CDs and video/films.

The site is a "work in progress" that aims at improving market transparency and supporting governments in policy making. There are gaps in data, as traditional statistical methods are being updated to reflect accurately the rapidly growing international exchange of digitalized products such as music, films, videos, advertising, news, and all creative content that travel via the Internet and mobile phones."

The Nairobi Plan calls for "evidence-based and informed policies, strategies and plans of action through reliable, up-to-date and comprehensive data" and suggests one strategy in this regard would be to "conduct research on the economic contributions of cultural and creative industries in the economies of (African Union) member states".

DOEN and the Stromme Foundation have made available funds for the ARTerial Network to conduct such research. A company will be commissioned to collate all the research that has been done in this field in Africa over the last five years, to train a number of local researchers and to undertake further research into the economic impact of the creative industries. Part of the plan is have such ongoing research feed into an annual conference that will rotate from region to region, and which will feed into the formulation of appropriate policies and strategies further to develop the African cultural sector.
The ARTerial Network has begun discussions with UNCTAD about co-operating in this sphere. UNCTAD has launched a pilot, multi-agency project jointly with UNESCO and the ILO, in five ACP countries including Zambia, Mozambique and Senegal.

International Conference on African Culture and Development (ICACD)

2008-11-04T13:53:00.003+02:00

At the same time as UNCTAD was launching the Creative Economy Report in Ghana, the International Conference on African Culture and Development was taking place.
The aim of ICACD - the Secretariat for which is based in Ghana - is organise an annual conference on the subject on culture and development so that within a decade, there will be significant information, analysis and empirical knowledge about the relationship between and integration of culture and development.
Much of the current culture and development trends emphasise the creative and cultural industries. ICACD is picking up on the two UNESCO Decades for Culture and Development that try to understand and practice development as a cultural process, rather than simply as an economic one.
The next ICACD conference will take place in June 2009 in Ghana again, with the theme "African culture and the Millennium Development Goals".

Website on African arts, culture and heritage

2008-11-04T13:53:00.001+02:00

The Arterial conference identified the absence of basic information as a crucial impediment to the growth of the African cultural sector. Accordingly, the Task Team recommended that a portal be established to make available information about the creative sector to facilitate networking, touring, development and cultural exchanges on the continent. Funds are in the process of being secured to develop and maintain this website - initially to be available in English and French - for the next three years.

Winter school on building sustainable advocacy organisations.

2008-11-04T13:52:00.003+02:00

One of the key deficiencies on the continent is the lack of sustainable national networks representing the interests of artists and the creative sector within their respective countries. There is little local funding for such advocacy groups that are often regarded as threats by authorities. However, both for democracy and for the improvement of the conditions and status of artists, national, regional and continental networks are crucial.

It is likely that funds have been secured to run an annual winter school for the next three years to train and develop artists' networks, unions and lobbies on the continent in sustainable forms of management, fundraising and lobbying. The intention is that by the end of three years, there will be significant national, regional and continental networks that are representative, democratic and sustainable and that would represent the interests of the sector as required, with the ARTerial Network - currently playing a catalytic role - eventually ceasing to exist.

The first such winter school will be held in June/July 2009 for representatives of artists' networks in at least ten African countries.

Secretariat

2008-11-04T13:52:00.001+02:00

HIVOS, DOEN and Africalia provided funds for the ARTerial Network's Secretariat for the period ending 31 December 2008. The Secretariat is now housed in the Africa Centre - a privately-funded institution based in Cape Town, committed to the development of the arts and culture of the continent. Margerie Vacle - a native French speaker born in West Africa - has been recruited to provide administrative and management support to the Secretariat as from 1 October 2008. Florence Mukanga, a Zimbabwean national who recently completed her Masters Degree in Arts Administration at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and then worked at the Observatory for Cultural Policies in Africa, has been recruited to work as a project assistant and researcher. A website dedicated to the activities of the ARTerial Network (separate from the proposed Portal on African arts, culture and heritage), is in the process of development and will go live shortly.

"Arterial Network"-type network to launch in Asia

2008-11-04T13:51:00.000+02:00

Given the potential of the Arterial Network, a similar initiative is being launched in Bangalore, India in mid-December to attempt to network artists and creative sector stakeholders in the region so that they may take collective action to advance their interests. One of the main actors in this initiative is HIVOS, a prime driver and donor partner of the Arterial Network in Africa. Other partners are the Open Society Initiative and the local partners are the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society. This meeting of cultural stakeholders in Asia is taking place under the working title "Culture and Civil Society Development in Asia - Connecting Divergent Asian Contexts.

'Is the SABC Becoming a State Broadcaster?

2008-11-03T10:35:00.001+02:00

Next Debate Monday 10 November 2008 WITS Great Hall

Address by Eddie Mbalo (NFVF) at the Intergovernmental Indaba on Film

2008-09-22T14:03:00.003+02:00

Address by CEO of the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), Eddie Mbalo at the Intergovernmental Indaba on Film held on Tuesday, 2 September 2008 at the CSIR International Convention Centre. The Director General of the Department of Arts & Culture Mr Themba Wakashe would have given some contextual matter to whet our appetite about the role of the state in film development.

As a matter of highlights these are some the points he would have made:

1. Film as vehicle for Social cohesion
2. Film as means of Public Diplomacy
3. Reflection of South Africa to itself and to the world
4. The recordal of a people’s history

The Director General of the Department of Trade and Industry Mr Tshediso Matona spoke of the following:

1. The film sector needing to harvest the work it has done to date and taking the industry forward in leaps
2. The public sector’s needs to take the lead and to find ways to add value to the industry
3. Frameworks that need to be created in order to provide the space for self-discovery which in turn will lead to economic development
4. Fragmentation in the industry, which has to addressed and overcome in order to create an effective environment for self-discovery

Of course all these inputs are made against the discussion paper as well as the introductory remarks that were made by the Facilitator, Mr. Thami Nxasana.

With all these inputs what is left for me to say?

* Firstly, I would like to give the background reason for this Indaba
* Secondly, I would like to engage all of us here about the Human Agency Notion of the Film Sector
* Thirdly, I would like to talk about what Value Charters are in general and the NFVF Value Charter in particular as the longstanding NFVF position.
* Finally I would like to register the importance of our collective input as the actors to address the challenges face by South Africa.

Background reason for this Indaba

First and foremost, the National Film and Video Foundation Act No. 73 of 1997, guides us on how the NFVF relates to different government departments, in this case the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Education as it relates to the issue of the National Film School. The Cultural Laws Amendment Act which amended the NFVF Act also speaks to the permission the NFVF should seek from the Ministers of Arts and Culture and of Trade and Industry in relation to the establishment of a separate legal entity that will invest in film. The NFVF Act also guides us on how the NFVF relates to provinces, “…interact with the Member of the Executive as appointed by the Premier…”

The good thing about this is that, it does not necessarily mention which MEC, and that could mean, Arts and Culture, Economic Development or even Education. In relation to other government departments, the Value Charter guides us as per protocols on co-operative governance enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic.

As it has been mentioned in the discussion paper, we are faced with the challenge of addressing the problem of fragmentation of the Film Sector. Fragmentations occur along these lines:

* Industry to industry
* State to State
* State to Industry

To quote Mr Nxasana, as he deals with the Strategic Challenges for the film Sector in a political economy, he writes, “… the correction of industry fragmentation and skews is achieved through state intervention. This calls upon the involved organs of the state to determine the scope of fragmentation, put in place appropriate corrective measures and appropriate roles to specific state organs. State bureaucracy on its own cannot motivate itself to act appropriately, therefore political championing is necessary”.

He continues to write, “Since the new democratic dispensation, a number of state level interventions have been undertaken such as to perform and transform the institutional infrastructure and to bring in new institutional instruments. The issue for this Indaba is to have a sense of what impact did these interventions have on dealing with fragmentations and skews, what is the new ground that still needs to be covered. Action in this regard can only occur if there could be understanding and explanations for the causes of the state of fragmentation and skews that still exist and the new emergent ones”.

During the Indaba 2005 it was deliberated to deal with all these fragmentations. Since then the following has happened:

* The Industry to industry fragmentation was addressed by the formation of the industry umbrella body, The South African Screen Federation (SASFED). The federation will play a critical advocacy role and bring about policy and programme changes by way of improving the sector. The establishment of the federation aligns our sector to the matured sectors of the economy in which professional bodies play a critical role to shape the sectors.
* The address of the state-to-state fragmentation is what we are here to do. At the Indaba 2005, whilst the Minister of Arts and Culture, Dr Pallo Jordan challenged the industry to organise itself, the industry lamented the fact that the state and its institutions were not speaking with one voice, something that impedes industry development as state institutions competing amongst each other with programmes that are not aligned.
* Subsequently, and hopefully in the next Indaba we shall address the issue of state to Industry fragmentation.

The Human Agency Notion of the Film Sector

The economy of any country is made up of a number of sectors of which the film sector is one. The sectors compete with one another to bring about prosperity and the quality of life to the citizens. In our country, national cabinet identified cultural industries and particularly film as a growth area. In this regard the film sector competes with many other sectors as identified in the Microeconomic Reform Strategy (MRS) and later Asgisa, etc.

The sector itself is made up of certain things and people or the community of practice that must arrange these things in an optimum way.

Things are institutions such as the private and public sector, policies/legislations, instruments such as incentive schemes, funds and programmes.

The people are what provide the spirit, visioning, leadership and management of things. It is the people within the sector who interact with society at large to make a particular sector attractive.

We, the people gathered here today are that community of people who are playing the film side of the economic derby.

I often hear people criticise Bafana Bafana or the Proteas for a poor show, even criticise individual players as the liability to the national squads. As we gather here we are the Bafana Bafana or the Proteas of the film game. Are we a winning team? If the general notion is that the sector is fragmented does this not refer to the fact that we are not a good side? This is what we should address, very painstakingly, if we shall ever emerge to be the winning side.

The Integrative Nature of the Charters

Throughout the high tide of the struggle for liberation, South Africa was guided by the most noble of documents to emerge out of the unity of our people to remove the Apartheid system, at the Congress of the People in Kliptown, the Freedom Charter. That denoted the integrative nature of Charters. It provides a sense of direction and commitment.

It is this understanding that led the NFVF to formulate the Value Charter. The Value Charter positioned the film sector in terms of the Microeconomic Reform Framework that was approved by the national cabinet in the year 2002. It covered the capital formation strategy, the human capital development strategy, sectoral co-ordination strategy, Sectoral Information System and the critical programmes to achieve these strategies.

The written word by itself cannot go too far without the ownership by us the fraternity that constitute the human side of the sector.

Our Collective Input as the Actors to address the challenges faced by South Africa.

Again we always hear about the challenges faced by South Africa, global competitiveness, job creation, poverty alleviation etc. What wins do we want to post to the scorecard of successes? These are the questions that we should address.

Thank you.
Eddie Mbalo CEO of the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF)

NFVF Guidelines on Co-Production

2008-08-29T11:37:00.001+02:00

The NFVF has developed co-production guidelines for industry comment.

The purpose of the guidelines is to give guidance on co-production treaty requirements, the application process for an advance and final ruling and to set down an appeal process for projects that do not comply with treaty requirements. The advance and final ruling application forms have also been updated. Once comments have been received, producers must take note of the new application forms that will be available on the website.

The co-production guidelines comments should be send to Aifheli Dzebu before Friday 26 September 2008 on the following email address: aifhelid@nfvf.co.za

To download the guidleines in a PDF go here

DTI & Nat. Treasury to unveil R5bn tax incentives

2008-08-25T21:39:00.002+02:00

Agreement had finally been reached between the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the National Treasury on the structure of tax incentives worth R5-billion, which could be used to support large projects that meet South Africa’s industrial-policy objectives.

Speaking at a briefing last week to report back on the recent Cabinet lekgotla’s economic, investment and employment cluster deliberations, Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpa-hlwa said that the programme should be finalised in September.

The tax scheme, which would replace the now oversubscribed strategic industrial projects incentive, was part of a series of new industrial financing measures being deployed following the adoption last year of a National Industrial Policy Framework (NIPF) and its associated industrial policy action plan, known as the IPAP.

This new architecture had been informed by a comprehensive review of all of the business incentives introduced in South Africa since 1996, and Mpahlwa indicated that the tax incentive was but one component of a larger package for which some R10-billion would be made available over the next three years.

He indicated that the tax incen- tive would add a large-project dimension to the existing incentive suite, which was currently relatively modest in both size and reach.

At present, there were only a handful of cross-industrial schemes in place, with the most prominent being the R700-mil- lion Enterprise Investment Pro-gramme (EIP), launched earlier this year. Another industrial upgrading scheme was reportedly under development.

DTI director-general Tshediso Matona said that the EIP, which was designed to support small and medium-sized manufacturers, as well as tourism investments valued at between R5-million and R200-million, would be reviewed and that additional resources could be set aside based on market appetite and perceived effectiveness.

Both the DTI and the National Treasury were intent on ensuring greater conditionality so that taxpayers’ money was not directed to projects that did not meet the NIPF’s intentions.

Indeed, Finance Minister Trevor Manuel pointedly made this point last month, when, in denying persistent suggestions that he did not support the NIPF, made apparent his irritation with the DTI’s handling of its implementation.

“Unless people can put a business plan on the table, that is costed and viable, where the benefits to all of us as citizens of the country are explained, you shouldn’t expect us to give the taxes that you earn and pay over to the State to ill-considered proposals,” Manuel said in Johan-nesburg last week.

He added that it was not about “blocking things that can make a difference”, but about raising the bar.

Also emerging was an effort to redesign some of the existing industry-specific incentives, notably for the automotive and clothing and textile sectors, as well as to introduce a range of additional targeted programmes.

The new automotive support instrument, which would replace the Motor Industry Development Programme, was currently being canvassed with stakeholders, and could be unveiled later this month, or early in September, once it had been approved by Cabinet.

Mpahlwa reported, too, that a new support programme had been developed for the embattled clothing and textile sector, and would focus on technology upgrading and employment retention. He said that a concessional loan facility would be set up under the aegis of the Industrial Development Corporation to support this initiative.

Other targeted incentives were also already on offer for the call-centre sector, as well as for the film and television industry.

Seven call-centre investments had already received support, with Mpahlwa indicating that this could lead to the creation of 10 000 direct jobs in the sector over the next few years. He added that there were a number of additional applications under consideration, which could swell that employment creation number even further.

He also announced that the NIPF and the IPAP would be aligned to South Africa’s three- year budgetary framework, with some R5-billion having already been set aside for industry incen- tives over and above the R5-billion tax incentive scheme.

by Terence Creamer

Snuki resumes duties at SABC

2008-08-25T21:38:00.001+02:00

Suspended head of SABC news Snuki Zikalala has been “exonerated” on all charges of misconduct, the public broadcaster’s board said yesterday. “We respect the independent inquiry process on this matter and welcome Dr Zikalala back at work and hope all concerned will allow him to perform his duties without hindrance,” said chair Kanyisiwe Mkonza.
The board met on Tuesday to consider a report by an independent inquiry, headed by Modise Khoza SC.

The probe acquitted Zikalala after establishing that he had not breached any of his contractual obligations, Mkonza said in a statement .
Zikalala was suspended by SABC group chief executive Dali Mpofu on May 6. Mpofu accused Zikalala of leaking confidential documents and an internal SABC memorandum.
The board later claimed that Mpofu did not have the authority to suspend Zikalala and suspended the chief executive.
On the recommendation of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, an independent inquiry was set up to look into charges of misconduct against Zikalala.
“This inquiry found that Dr Zikalala has not breached any of his contractual obligations ,” Mkonza said.
“Against this background, the board has resolved that Dr Zikalala must resume his duties as group executive news and current affairs with immediate effect,” she said.

Source: Filmmaker SA

Mbeki's powers restricted on SABC board

2008-08-25T21:33:00.001+02:00

Legislation that seeks to force the President to consult the parliamentary Speaker when appointing the SABC board has been passed by the National Assembly. The Broadcasting Amendment Bill was passed by 241 votes against 51. The bill also gives Parliament the authority to remove a SABC board member and dissolve the entire board.
The bill compels the President of the republic to consult the National Assembly Speaker when appointing the SABC board. Opposition parties say this undermines the constitutional principle of the separation of powers between the executive and the legislature.

This passage of the bill was met with stiff opposition. Parties insist its part of battles between two ANC factions and an attempt by the ANC's new leadership to dictate to the President.

However, the ANC stuck to its guns, even indicating that the bill - if passed as it is - could be used against the sitting board. The bill now goes to National Council of Provinces for concurrence.

Source: Filmmaker SA

Finding Your Story and the Money to turn it into a Film

2008-08-06T13:56:00.000+02:00

Tri Continental Film Festival Master Classes 18th -22nd August 2008

119 Jan Smuts Ave
Entrance on New Port Road
Parkwood 2193

Finding Your Story and the Money to turn it into a Film
Rehad Desai
Date: Monday 18th August
Time: 2pm-5pm
Venue: Goethe Institute
Rehad Desai is well known local filmmaker who has made many documentary’s over the last 10 years. He runs Uhuru Productions and is the director of Tri Continental Film Festival.
Presentation Topic
A synopsis needs to answer, very directly, that well known question, “what is your story?’’ While this may sound quite simple, finding an articulate, engaging and unique description of your story is an art in itself. Once you have mastered the writing of a persuasive proposal, where you seek this support will be dependent on what type of documentary you are making and the issues it addresses. This and more will be explored in this master class.

119 Jan Smuts Ave
Entrance on New Port Road
Parkwood 2193

Unpacking the crisis at the SABC

2008-07-23T20:16:00.000+02:00

Why is there such a crisis at the SABC? The following presentation was made at a forum on civil society strategies to deal with the current crisis at the SABC. The forum was convened by the Open Society Foundation and attended by a range of civil society organisations and concerned individuals.

10 June 2008
Jane Duncan
Freedom of Expression Institute

In order to craft solutions to address the current crisis at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), it is necessary to analyze the roots of the crisis. In this presentation I will attempt to do just that. It seems fair to say that the SABC has been beset with instability for some time now. This could be attributed in part to the fact that the SABC has always been and remains a hybrid beast: part commercial broadcaster, part public broadcaster, it has lurched between the two for many years.
But the most important factor by far in the SABC’s instability could be attributed to the government’s twists and turns in its policy on parastatals. In fact, Roger Southall has identified at least three seismic policy shifts since 1994, which he has characterized rather crudely as a shift from the left, then to the right, and then back to the centre. It remains to be seen whether the events at Polokwane will trigger a fourth seismic shift towards the left. Any public institution that has been made to undergo three seismic shifts, with a fourth one looming, in a period of thirteen years, will be susceptible to instability, even crisis. I will analyse how these shifts in parastatal policy have affected the SABC, and further how they have contributed to the current crisis at the SABC.
From left to right: Sisulu to Matlare
In the period following the appointment of the 1993 Board, real attempts were made under the management of Zwelakhe Sisulu to transform the SABC from a state broadcaster to a public broadcaster in line with the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), and great deal of progress was made in this regard.
However, things began to go awry when Parliament was called on to respond to the recommendations of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) on the future of the SABC. It adopted the IBA’s recommendations selectively, without sufficient regard to the financial implications, precipitating the SABC’s first financial crisis in 1996. Most significant was the fact that Parliament was willing to concede only some project-based public funding for the broadcaster, rather than longer-term institutional funding. This project-based funding was to dry up shortly afterwards.
The decision to free the government from the obligation to fund the SABC on an ongoing basis led to the hurried drafting of the White Paper on Broadcasting Policy in 1997, and the Broadcasting Bill in 1998. While public consultation was still taking place on the appropriate model for the SABC, the Department of Communications decided to corporatise the SABC, and to divide its services into two divisions: the first would consist of purely commercial services, and the second of public services. The former was meant to cross-subsidise the latter. The Department also indicated that private equity may be introduced to the commercial services, which effectively meant that aspects of these services may be privatized. So hurried was the development of the Bill that many of its provisions were simply cribbed from Australian, British and Canadian legislation. Ten of the sixteen objectives in the SABC Charter were cut and pasted from the BBC Act. The Department’s approach to the SABC at the time was in line with general government policy, emphasizing fiscal constraint and privatization of profitable assets, and mirrored what Southall has characterized as a shift to the right in parastatal policy.
Under the leadership of Vincent Maphai, the Board set about implementing the Act. There is general consensus that the-then CEO, Hawu Mbatha, was weak, and the restructuring led to in-fighting amongst power blocs. When Peter Matlare was appointed, he focused on turning around the SABC’s finances, which he did with remarkable success, but to a significant extent at the expense of the public service mandate. Huge swathes of the SABC were commercialized, leading to its services prioritizing young, urban, upwardly mobile audiences at the expense of older, rural and unemployed audiences, and women. At one stage, whole formats were discontinued, such as drama.
From right to centre: Matlare to Mpofu
This ‘profits before people’ approach led to a public backlash against the SABC in 2002, resulting in changes to the Broadcasting Act in the form of the Broadcasting Amendment Bill. These changes sought to clarify the SABC’s mandate through the adoption of Editorial policies. By that stage, the Department had become extremely upset with the SABC’s overly commercial nature, and attempted to intervene by controlling the development of its Editorial policies, while setting up a parallel state broadcaster. After a public controversy, it backtracked on these intentions. This attempt to patch up the deficits of the White Paper has now led to a perverse situation where – in contrast to the IBA’s recommendation of the SABC having two television channels – it now has five, two of which have been put on ice.
The amendments to the Broadcasting Act coincided with another development, namely the ANC’s adoption of its first post-apartheid media policy at its Stellenbosch conference. In its policy, the ANC resolved to establish a publicly funded media model by the year 2012, starting with public funding for SABC services such as SABC 4 and 5, to reduce its overreliance on adspend. This model was necessary 'in order for the public and community media to serve as vehicles to articulate the needs of the poor, rural people, women, labour and other marginalised constituencies'. (ANC 2002: 5)
Having acknowledged the failure of its privatization programme to generate significant income for the state, and to ensure the empowerment of many black people, the ANC and the government began to espouse the notion of the ‘developmental state’, and argued in line with the East Asian model that the state had a responsibility to correct market failures. However, developmental states tend be inherently authoritarian, in that they involve development being ‘driven from the top’. In South Africa, this translated into power being centralized in the Executive, more especially in the Presidency. So it is hardly surprising that new Board appointments to the SABC, Transnet and South African Airways – which took place at roughly the same time – reportedly involved cadre deployment to ensure that these parastatals met developmental state objectives.
The Executive arm of government failed in its attempts at direct control of the SABC when amending the Broadcasting Act in 2002. So the only avenue left to it to steer the Corporation towards developmental objectives was to exercise indirect control through the appointment of the Executive and non-Executive Directors. With respect to the non-Executive Directors, the 2003 Board appointments were controversial, with opposition parties accusing the ANC of ramming its choices through the Parliamentary system. On the surface of things, the insertion of Parliament into the appointment process after the selection of the 1993 Board, was a perfectly reasonable step in a democratic dispensation where Parliament represents the will of the people.
However, the reality was somewhat different. The first problem with this appointment process is that it lends itself to horse-trading. Even more problems creep in when Parliament is dominated by one political party, especially if the party holds an outright majority, as this can lead to the majority party imposing its choices on the others. It has been well acknowledged that under Mbeki’s administration, Parliament was disempowered relative to the Executive, which meant that appointment processes controlled by Parliament rather than the Minister were still capable of being manipulated politically, including by members of the very Executive who are meant to account to Parliament.
Independence is not achieved through legislative guarantees alone. The ‘staging’ of a creative tension through the choice of Board members with dissimilar views is a crucial guarantor of the SABC’s independence, as no one stream of thought can dominate. On the other hand, selecting people with similar political views and economic interests, creates the potential for, at best, like-mindedness and at worst, elite pacting, which can lead to institutional biases creeping in insidiously, and infusing the SABC’s institutional culture. The Parliamentary process has not necessarily ensured a ‘staging’ of this diversity of opinion through its selection of Board members.
In fact, Parliament has tended to read the Broadcasting Act’s requirement for the Board to represent a cross-section of the population narrowly, to refer to the race and gender composition of the Board, without real regard to other questions of sectoral or even class representation. There has led to a clear bias in Board appointments towards business figures, and away from labour and civil society organisations; the latest Board does not even include practicing journalists. The need for skills, defined in the narrow technicist sense, has replaced the need for representivity. Undoubtedly, certain skills are needed to run an institution as complex as the SABC, but perhaps there is a need to think of skills in a different way, in that many people who may not have skills recognised by the formal market, may have other skills to offer that could enrich the Board, such as organising skills.
Parliament’s failure to think outside the box is perhaps an inevitable by-product of the contraction in the system of formal electoral multiparty politics, where genuine multiparty competition is limited. Given the dealignment of loyalty of some voters to particular parties, and the fact evident in the 2004 elections that more poor people are choosing to refrain from voting, public institution that have their Boards selected through Parliament are less likely to have their interests taken into account. In debating a new selection procedure for the Board, it is important to take all these factors into account.
Direct government control has been exercised over the appointment of Executive Directors. While corporatisation was meant to free government of the obligation to fund the SABC, it also introduced new forms of government control. In terms of the SABC’s Articles of Association, which were drafted in 2003 and revised in 2006, certain rights and responsibilities were assigned to the Minister, as the sole shareholder. Some of these rights strip the Board of the power to control its affairs, as required by the Broadcasting Act.
For instance, in terms of the SABC’s Articles of Association, the Board does not have final decision making powers over the appointment of the three Executive Directors (the Group Chief Executive Office, or GCEO; the Chief Financial Officer; and the Chief Operating Officer); it can merely make recommendations to the Minister. It should be borne in mind that the GCEO is also the editor-in-chief of the SABC, which means that the Minister has indirect control over the editorial content of the SABC. The Minister has total control over the proceedings of General Meetings, including the resolutions taken at that meeting.
Once the new Board was installed in 2003, it set about aligning the SABC with the government’s changed policy towards parastatals, and adopted a policy position favouring development journalism. However, they faced a problem, in that the then-CEO, Peter Matlare, was an inheritance from the ‘commercialisation before transformation’ era, and needed to be replaced. This was done, and Matlare was replaced by Dali Mpofu, but not before Snuki Zikalala was appointed as head of news to implement the development journalism agenda. There is nothing inherently problematic in a public broadcaster choosing a development journalism agenda: internationally, public broadcasters often decide to prioritise audiences whose interests may be marginalised by commercial, mainstream media. However, if the institution’s governance structure exhibits like-mindedness, this can lead to an assumption that there is only one definition of ‘development’ – namely the official development state model referred to above – and a failure to recognise that the development model is contested.
In fact, in order to re-orientate the SABC towards developmental state objectives, the Board probably felt a need to involve themselves in the day to day running of the organization, marking a shift from a policy making Board to an operational Board. In the process, it set the stage for structural conflict between itself and the SABC’s Group Executive over their respective roles.
Mpofu began his period in office on a good note, overseeing the implementation of a new strategy called ‘Broadcasting for Total Citizen Empowerment’. At last, there seemed to be a strategy that the SABC and civil society could unite around. However, his good intentions were to founder on the rocks of internal conflict around editorial values. This conflict resulted in repeated, and often arbitrary, management incursions into the decision-making of editorial staff under the guise of ensuring transformation objectives, leading to confusion and demoralization in the newsroom.
The conflicts over the coverage of Jacob Zuma relative to Thabo Mbeki, the Mbeki documentary, and the so-called ‘blacklisting saga’, all suggested the development of a culture of deference inside the SABC, combined with a fear of risk-taking. Corinna Arndt has noted that in a climate of uncertainty, where managers and even Board members dabble in decision-making that should be left to journalists, there is a growing tendency to self-censor to please the powers-that-be internally and externally, particularly when it comes to controversial decisions that may offend the government or the ruling party. The Broadcasting Act protects the SABC against external interference in editorial decision making; yet, internal pressure has been a much more significant threat to editorial independence than external pressure.
It should be noted, though, that quantitative data on SABC News and Current affairs, as reflected in the Media Monitoring Project (MMP) and Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) data has not necessarily bear out the qualitative data mentioned above. In this regard, it is worth noting that most of the recent editorial disputes have been about current affairs and programming, rather than news, which implies a timidity regarding the SABC’s role in forming opinions, rather than in making news. Also, the MMP and BCCSA data only considers what is broadcast, not what is not broadcast. There is a need for a media monitoring tool that measures both presences and absences in what is broadcast, otherwise it is impossible to track systematic suppression of stories that would, under optimum newsroom conditions, be considered newsworthy. Yet more recently, there is evidence of bias in broadcast material emerging in the quantitative data too, with Media Tenor having noted a marked difference relative to other media in the SABC’s coverage of Mbeki and Zuma after Polokwane, with Mbeki being covered in a neutral manner, while the coverage of Zuma has been overwhelmingly negative: a difference that will inevitably portray Mbeki as a more capable leader than Zuma in the run up to national elections.
To the left again? Polokwane and beyond
What does Polokwane mean for the SABC? Can the current crisis at the SABC be attributed simply to a grubby power struggle between Mbeki supporters and Zuma supporters, with the latter now trying to deploy their own cadres to displace the former? This, I would suggest, is a simplistic reading of the Polokwane shift; while it recognizes the threats for the SABC of this shift, it fails to recognize the opportunities.
The opportunities are that Parliament may, once again, find its voice. Many may be cynical about the Portfolio Committee’s sudden re-commitment to its oversight role, after years of relative inaction. They read malafides into this new energy, suspecting an attempt to remove the current Board, which was borne in sin, to allow them to stack it with Zuma supporters ahead of the elections. Parliament may be playing its oversight role patchily and inconsistently, but it is better than what we had. As civil society, our role should be to strengthen that role, while acknowledging the fact that Parliament is not the only forum where democracy is practiced in society.
Many say that the very Parliament that allowed three members of the current Board to be imposed on an otherwise reasonable process, must take responsibility for their mistake, rather than attempting to correct this mistake illegally. There is no provision in the Broadcasting Act for the removal of the Board as a whole, and individual members may be removed only on grounds of misconduct or incapacity and after an enquiry. People who make this argument fail to recognize that many ANC members went to Polokwane to stop precisely these sorts of practices from occurring again. To that extent, Polokwane has opened up spaces that may enhance, rather than reduce, the quality of democracy. These spaces may not last, and many may harbour some real doubts about the quality of leader that Polokwane chose, but it would be lost opportunity not to make full use of the spaces that have opened up. Had Polokwane not happened, the intractable situation at the SABC - where no matter what was attempted, nothing seemed to make a difference - could well have continued.
Some practical steps need to be taken. Firstly, civil society needs to take a position on the current Board. Given the evidence of political manipulation, should we call on the Board to resign, or only those members who were imposed on the process? If we take the latter position, then what about the observation made by Judge Moroa Tsoka in his reinstatement judgment of Mpofu that the Board needs to take collective responsibility for what he considered to be the improper and dishonest conduct of the Chair? What is clear is that inaction on the current Board’s composition is not an option. The most appropriate suggestion may well be to support publicly the call for a Commission of Enquiry into the recent goings on at the SABC, to establish in the cacophony of accusations and counter-accusations, who is right and who is wrong. This Commission could also investigate the manner in which the current Board was selected, and make recommendations. This is an urgent matter, given that a decision about the establishment of such a Commission may well be taken shortly.
Thirdly, civil society should also support the complaint at Icasa on the SABC’s failure to respond appropriately to the findings of the Sisulu Commission of Enquiry into allegations of blacklisting. This will ensure that pressure is placed on the Board to respond appropriately.
Fourthly, civil society needs to build links with the unions organizing in the SABC, and lend support. The idea of a general strike at the SABC is under discussion, given that wage negotiations have been delayed owing to the current crisis. No employee worth his or her salt can function effectively in a climate of such uncertainty, and we need to listen to what the employees are saying in this regard.
Fifthly, civil society needs to come up with recommendations on revisions to the Broadcasting Act. The appointment and removal procedures of the Board may well need to be changed. There are pros and cons to removing the selection role of Parliament, and replacing it with a panel, similar to a Broadcasting Services Panel. While a panel may well depoliticize the selection process, would such a panel be any more sensitive to inherent sectoral and class biases in the selection process than Parliament was? Yet at the same time there is a need to recognise that the situation has changed from the days of the Campaign for Independent Broadcasting, and that Parliament is now legitimate. Perhaps there is a need to craft a solution that marries the best of both proposals: a panel whose members consist of key constituencies, such as Parliament, government, labour, civil society and business. As these constituencies will choose their representatives, they will be – to an extent – self-selecting.
Other revisions need to be considered, including the need to develop a truly South African charter, and consideration needs to be given to provisions for periodic charter renewal. Mechanisms of public access to the Board, as well as to the SABC as a whole, need to be written into the Act. The role of the Board relative to Group Executive needs to be clarified. The appointment procedures of the Executive Directors need to be changed, to make the Board entirely responsible. The Minister’s role in relation to the SABC needs to be written out. Public funding needs to be secured for the SABC, and civil society needs to propose its own funding model. All these provisions require detailed proposals.
But perhaps all these measures will not be enough. If new policy decisions are to be taken about the SABC, then the old, flawed, policy decisions underlying the Broadcasting Act – based on the government imperative of the late 1990’s to drive the SABC into self-sufficiency - need to be reviewed. As the Charter was plagiarized from the BBC Charter, there has not been a proper debate about the contents of the Charter? Should the SABC be developmental in nature, or have a universal mandate? These are policy questions primarily. But the SABC has also been subject to general government policy on parastatals. The important point to recognize here is that government and Parliament has set up the SABC for instability, by chopping and changing policy so often. The crisis at the SABC is not simply about bad management, or havoc being wrought by government deployees intent on controlling the SABC. These are symptoms rather than causes of the problem.
For some time now, the SABC has been treated as a garden variety parastatal, which has failed to recognize the SABC’s distinctive qualities, and peculiar needs for independence and accountability. The Broadcasting Policy and Act are based on this view. The SABC should not be treated like Transnet, SAA, or – heaven forbid – Eskom. It is not coincidental that two parastatals – namely Eskom and the SABC – are experiencing crises at the same time. Inappropriate policy decisions to make the public service mandates of these organizations subject to vagaries of a commercial model, coupled with inappropriate attempts to correct these problems, are now coming back to bite them.
This means that a new SABC Act should flow logically from a policy review, implying the need for a Green Paper/ White Paper process to precede the Bill. The SABC Act will take longer to conclude, but if the Act is promulgated on the basis of the existing policy, it will be built in a policy base that has been proved to be flawed. A policy review should set the SABC onto a path of stability once and for all. And once this happens, perhaps we can realize an SABC that will make us all proud.

Gauteng Film Partnership Formed To Promote Film Industry

2008-07-14T21:44:00.000+02:00

In a move designed to promote and grow the film sector in Gauteng, the Gauteng Film Commission (GFC) has facilitated the formation of a consultative forum, comprising expertise and resources from key film and audiovisual related organisations and communities, as well as public sector bodies, in the Province.

The Gauteng Film Partnership (GFP), which held its inaugural meeting earlier this month, aims to collectively work at elevating the profile of the audiovisual industry in Gauteng and to ensure that the film industry grows and operates in an integrated manner.

Commenting on the rationale behind the formation of the GFP, Terry Tselane, CEO of the GFC, said it was important to find mechanisms for coherent interaction between the industry and the GFC.

“We consider film a joint responsibility and our Board fully supports and backs the GFP. There is a need to improve both the quantity and quality of local films, and we hope that in this respect, the Partnership can play a meaningful role in ensuring a number of quality projects coming from Gauteng annually.”

The GFP, which will meet quarterly and will be central to informing the future strategies and policies of the GFC and province relating to film, will work with the GFC to drive the positioning of Gauteng as a film friendly province, one where film is “everyone’s business”.

“Through the Partnership, we aim to bring together the resources, energy and creativity of key organisations, groups, communities and individuals in order to meet the development needs of the wider Gauteng audiovisual industry and ensure that Gauteng remains an attractive location for all types of film production,” explains Tselane.

Members of the GFP, who represent their area of expertise, rather than their own organisations or businesses, are tasked with communicating with those involved in their area of representation, while promoting the development of a long-term strategic view of the industry in the Province.

The 11 appointed members are: Richard Nosworthy (Independent Producers Organisation), Dianne Regisford-Gueye (Talawa Communications), Natalie Delport (Animation SA), Bobby Amm (Commercial Producers Association), John Stodel (Scipio Entertainment Group), Kelello Molapo (Efbeeye Technologies) , Melisia Shinners (National Film, Video and Sound Archives of South Africa), Akin Omotoso (T.O.M. pictures), Heather Setzen (Hotshots / Consulting Dynamix), David Heitner (Revolution Film Partners) and Joy Riba (SABC).

The GFC is represented by Terry Tselane, as well as Jacques Stolz, Senior Marketing Manager.

Financing Your Film - WIFTSA Panel Discussion

2008-07-14T21:43:00.002+02:00

Women in Film and Television South Africa (WIFTSA) will host a Panel Discussion entitled Financing Your Film: managing your relationship with broadcasters and financiers, on 5 August (6pm – 8pm) at the Protea Hotel Victoria Junction, Cape Town.

For many filmmakers, finding finance is the hardest part of making a film. In an attempt to address this issue, WIFTSA has put together a high-profile panel of experts that will discuss how best to meet the stipulations of financiers and broadcasters.

Film Finances’ Paul Raleigh and attorney, Guy MacLeod, will introduce the audience to their new all-in-one PAL product designed to meet the legal, insurance and auditing criteria of financiers in one simple package. Financiers such as the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) and local broadcasters such as the SABC will discuss the nuts and bolts of managing a successful, on-going relationship with the people who hold the purse-strings.

The loss of the Sithengi Film & TV Market as a regional platform to share ideas, incentives and values, as well as WIFTSA’s on-going interest in promoting the development of vital business skills in the industry has prompted WIFTSA to hold this event. The event is open to WIFTSA members, and non-members at a charge of R20.

The event is made possible through the generous sponsorship of the Cape Film Commission, and of the venue by the Protea Hotel Victoria Junction.

Alison Best
WIFTSA office manager
Women in Film and Television
www.wiftsa.org.za
tel: +27 21 794 2286
fax: +27 21 794 9960
email: alison@atomic-productions.com

WIFTSA call for entries

2008-07-14T21:43:00.001+02:00

Women in Film and Television South Africa (WIFTSA) is looking for films, documentaries and public service announcements, made by and about women, in any South African language, for an evening screening in Cape Town.

The screening is in celebration of Women’s Month in August. Preference will be given to shorter pieces so as to accommodate as many as possible, but longer-length formats are also welcome.

As only WIFTSA members are eligible for entry, potential submitters are encouraged to join the organisation by contacting Alison at alison@atomic-productions.com. Membership fees range from R50 for students, R250 for independents and employees of companies with less than 30 employees, and R500 for large companies with more than 30 employees. WIFTSA membership also entitles the holder to free entry to all WIFTSA events and lectures.

A micro-expo of film industry vendors will also be on display at the event after the screening and exhibitors are encouraged to apply.

For more information, please contact Alison@atomic-productions.com. Women in Film and Television is a network of women and men dedicated to the professional development and empowerment of women in the film and television industry. WIFTSA was founded at the end of 2005 and has grown steadily into an active section-21 organization that concentrates on networking and skills development in its quest to boost the status of women in the industry.

Suspended SABC chief’s judgment on Monday

2008-07-14T21:42:00.001+02:00

Judgment will be given on Monday in the continuing dispute between suspended SABC group CE Dali Mpofu and the public broadcaster. by Jocelyn Newmarch

The case has dragged on for three days, despite being lodged as an urgent matter, which usually carries the expectation of a speedy decision.

Even Judge Antonie Gildenhuys remarked yesterday that it was unusual for an urgent court application to take so long to be heard.

According to Mpofu, he and the other two executive directors were unfairly excluded from the SABC board meetings of June 2 and 11 this year, where his latest suspension was discussed.

This robbed him of his right to participate in the meeting and have a fair hearing.

Yesterday, lawyers for both sides responded to arguments made the previous day.

Mpofu’s lawyers have asked the judge to find that the board meetings where Mpofu’s latest suspension were discussed were irregular, and that the resolutions taken there are null and void.

But the SABC’s lawyers have argued that the Labour Court is the proper place to hear the matter, and that the high c ourt should exercise jurisdiction only once the Labour Court has heard the application.

Alternatively, they argue that the executive directors voluntarily recused themselves and that they were right to do so.

In reply, advocate Vincent Maleka said that his client, Mpofu, had asked him to find the resolutions invalid, rather than the fact of his suspension.

“Mr Mpofu does not complain about unfair labour practice,” he said.

“I thought that is what he is complaining about,” said the judge. “Mr Mpofu is here to have his suspension set aside... That’s the purpose of why we’re here,” he said.

Snuki, SABC back before CCMA

2008-07-14T21:40:00.000+02:00

Suspended SABC head of news Snuki Zikalala and representatives of the broadcaster’s industrial relations department will return to the Commission for Conciliation Mediation and Arbitration in two weeks for further discussions, the CCMA said.

"They have gone away for two weeks to try and sort things out," said CCMA director Nerine Kahn.

They would meet again on July 21.

The parties met at the labour dispute resolution body on Monday as a follow-up to a previous meeting about Zikalala’s suspension.

Zikalala was suspended by group CEO Dali Mpofu in May, alleging that he had leaked confidential company documents.

Meanwhile, Mpofu would return to the Johannesburg High Court on Tuesday in a continuation of the challenge to his own suspension which followed his action against Zikalala.

Nollywood Regenerates in Hollywood

2008-07-14T21:35:00.002+02:00

Confronted with international appreciation of a homegrown Nigerian pop movie industry, imitatingly dubbed Nollywood in Hollywood, Los Angeles, last week, two Nigerian lawmakers could only readily promise to immediately canvass an industry fund that could propel the country's movie sector to the next level. by Okoh Aihe

Senator Ayogu Eze, Chairman, Senate Committee on Information and Communications and Honourable Dina Melanye, his counterpart in the lower house, were obviously awed by Nollywood credentials as presented by industry operators and international watchers of the Nigerian movie industry at a Nollywood Foundation Convention which held at Hotel Sofitel on Beverly Boulevard, and confessed that time has come for government to make a determinate intervention through an industry fund.

It is possible to work on a fund in the immediate future while working on President Uamru Yar'Adua to endorse Nollywood, they both said at postmortem for the three-day event.

Call it a magic moment for the Nigerian movie industry, largely appreciated in the continent and Diaspora by an enthusiastic followership but dreaded and pretentiously snubbed by established movie industries of the advanced world who fear that the Nigerian version of the industry could influence and liberate new genres of communications in their part of the world.

Call it a glorious moment for the Nigerian legislature whose two members deviating from the norm of the past of Assembly members flying out of the country but totaling refusing to attend programmes for which they were allocated funds, actually sat in the conference from morning to night, asking questions and making very meaningful contributions, and also created time to attend some few conferences at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Their summary of proceedings therefore and commitment to bring the Federal Government fully into the Nollywood picture didn't come as a surprise to the gathering that had appreciated their painstaking commitment and submissions through the conference.

"The Foundation has lit a fire that is going to burn without borders. We must all now continue to throw in folders in order to keep the fire burning," said Eze who hailed the organisers for tying the conference into the Los Angeles Film Festival.

The Senator's observation was very accurate. For, at that time of the year with the Los Angeles Film Festival and the BET Awards going side by side, the city is indeed tight and jammed and the ears and eyes of the industry moguls will not fail to notice any trace of development.

But that is the very reason the Nollywood Foundation now in its third edition was founded by a group of Nigerians scattered across the United States to advance the course of the Nigerian movie industry by going to the global heart of entertainment, and also inviting the international community to play a role.

"The foundation is an incorporated non-profit organisation that aims at bringing Nigerian movies and culture to the international audience and serves as a forum for new ideas and concepts. It also seeks to encourage Nigerian cultural developments projects in film and new media. The Nollywood Foundation is committed to supporting the Nigerian film industry and has developed programmes and events in order to achieve its mission," Egbe Dawodu, President of the Foundation told Vanguard at the Sofitel venue.

Since inception in 2006, the organisers have tried to build new bridges for Nigeria and industry operators. The African American actor is one of those new friends. "Nollywood can be sure to count on me as a friend," the popular star, Danny Glover said at the event last year.

Theme of this year's event which held in partnership with the Los Angeles Film Festal was "Beyond Limitations - Enhancing Film Production." From the first day the topic was deftly treated by movie makers, industry administrators, academicians, professionals, policy makers and government officials from different parts of the world.

Nearly all the speakers whether Nigerians or foreigners admitted that Nollywood is a unique case that Nigeria has to guide very jealously. They also warned that Nigeria should be mindful in the way foreigners are invited into the movie sector, counseling that they could just come in with their money to corrupt the industry.

"Nigeria is very lucky because you have a local safety net - huge population, not to talk of the Diaspora population," Rob Aft said. Aft largely hailed as the Nollywood ambassador has held topflight positions in the industry, served as educator in film schools, and also worked as analyst of the industry and adviser to the Cannes Film Festival, and has recently completed his seventh term as a member of the Board of Directors of the American Film and Marketing Association, AFMA, where he is chairman of the Buyer Accreditation Committee.

He is therefore in great a position to advise that our movie makers and government keep what they have and not allow the international community to destroy the essential element of the country's movie sector.

Part of that essential element is the art of story telling which is purely Nigerian; the video technology which Nigerians are using in telling our stories, and a huge population which if better nurtured could generate good returns on any properly made movie.

"Do not lose your language. Don't copy Hollywood because you can't. Take a bit of Hollywood, a bit of UK industry and do your film," someone admonished.

At the LA Film Festival, one speaker again drove point that home. Who is your audience - domestic or international? The North American market, he explained, is very closed. Then going further, the speaker pointed to India where 90 per cent of the films produced are for the local market while only about 10 per cent can find its way into the international market. And please note that India has the second largest film industry in the world after Hollywood.

North America is where you have Hollywood. Although the film capital of the world, only a few foreign films can actually push their way into the market and that doesn't happen often.

Ingolf Gabold Head of Drama - Danish Public Broadcaster - Summarised quotes from input 2008

2008-06-12T18:59:00.002+02:00

We are here to create an experience for our viewers.

High cost programming means the number of viewers will be high = price per viewer is therefore less. Therefore, expensive productions = cheap programming.

we draw in co -producers through the potential to win prizes such as Emmys. ie.ZDF. Scandinavian co=produced dramas = more money used for high end production = higher production value.

16 million Euros per annum = 35 hours of drama
childrens dramas E 2,000 per min.= R25,000
cheapest dramas E 4,000 per min = R50,000
then E 6,000 per min.
E8,700 per min
and very expensive E13,400 per min

We delegate responsibility for each productions on the principle that responsiblilty creates ownership and ownership creates quality. The Head of Drama dlegates repsonsibility for each productions to the executive producer concerned. Head of Drama coaches producer. Producer coaches key staff.

Notes courtesy of Anita Khanna
-----------

The only way we can produce high quality programming for the SABC is if they accept that people – audiences

understand production value and will tune into high end drama, which means we need far less low budget drama’s and far more higher budget dramas. The SABC has to raise budgets and allow for producer to own their works so we can qualify for the DTI’S local production rebate incentive.

Rehad Desai

GFC - City of Johannesburg confirms permit tariff increase

2008-06-12T18:56:00.002+02:00

Gauteng Film Commission
Statement

12 June 2008

City of Johannesburg confirms permit tariff increase

The Gauteng Film Commission (GFC) has been notified that as per a City of Johannesburg Council resolution the tariff for filming on public roads within the Johannesburg municipal area will increase from R400 to R450 per hour with effect from 1 July 2008.

According to Jacques Stoltz, GFC Senior Marketing Manager, “the GFC has expressed our concerns to the City of Johannesburg as it appears that the film community has yet again not been consulted on permit increases. Such tariff increases undermine our efforts of positioning Johannesburg and Gauteng as a film friendly region. We trust that our request for a meeting will be honoured to discuss the latest increases. We are still awaiting feedback from the Tshwane and Ekurhuleni metros in respect to tariff changes and will communicate any such changes to the industry in due course.”

For enquiries regarding tariffs please contact Isaac Maake at the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department at 011 758 9349.

On behalf of: Terry Tselane. CEO. Gauteng Film Commission
Tel: (011) 833 0409
Fax: (011) 833 0282
E-mail: terry@gautengfilm.org.za

Never again...

2008-06-11T13:26:00.003+02:00

New look at how SABC board is chosen

2008-06-06T11:17:00.001+02:00

The procedures for appointing the SABC’s board were to be reviewed, Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri said yesterday.

Speaking in the National Assembly during debate on her budget vote, she said there had been a national debate about the SABC as a result of views that had emerged out of the Assembly’s communications committee hearings.
“A very positive outcome of this has been a national focus on what our national broadcaster should be; what it should do to meet the needs of all and not some; and how it should be governed,” she said.
The diversity of views across a wide range of factors, including appointment processes and internal management effectiveness, its content, and relevance, had been expressed.
It was evident that the executive and Parliament would have to review the legislation and appointing processes.
It was necessary to ascertain whether this legislation, drawn up at a particular historical time, was relevant to the current historical conjuncture.
“The powers given to the appointing authority, the processes of appointing and removing the board members, the public broadcaster’s charter and the role of the executive and/or Parliament, clearly need reviewing without sacrificing the broadcaster’s independence, but clarifying the nature, content and form of that independence,” she said.
Matsepe-Casaburri said she had therefore requested reports from the board and management to assess the serious internal administrative and managerial problems within the SABC, and in respect of relations between the board and management, with a view to formulating appropriate legal, socio-political and economic recommendations.
“I suggest that the parliamentary committee consider leading a public hearing process on the public broadcaster best suited to our emerging democracy. The findings will inform our legislative processes in the department.”
The SABC board must go, the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) said yesterday. “The board must resign now, and make way for a more representative board to take over the public broadcaster, and run it in the interests of the majority of South Africans,” said spokesperson Patrick Craven.
“The federation will be glad to participate in public hearings and submit proposals for ways to ensure that the board is appointed in a more open and transparent manner and that its members are drawn from all sections of the population, including the labour movement.”

SABC board lashes executives

2008-06-06T11:16:00.002+02:00

The embattled SABC board has finally broken its silence over the scathing letter by SABC executives, who on Monday came out in support of chief executive Dali Mpofu. by Edward Tsumele and Eric Naki

The board, in a veiled threat of punitive action, yesterday hit back at the seven executives who had called for it to step down.
“The SABC board condemns in the strongest terms the conduct of the seven members of the executive (only two of these are permanent members of the group executive committee) who signed a petition that was sent to the media and other third parties calling on the board to resign with immediate effect.
“We consider this petition mischievous, divisive and intended to undermine the integrity and authority of the board as well as damaging the credibility of the organisation. It is important that the authority of the board is respected in the same way that the board acknowledges the role of management, that of Parliament and that of the appointing authority. We, however, do not wish to address this petition and the people behind it through the media,” SABC chairman Khanyisiwe Mkhonza said.