The ANCYL on Generations debacle [Part of the ANCYL Statement released today] 18. On Tuesday, August 19, the ANCYL met the 16 cast members of Mzansi’s number 1 soapie, Generations, who have had a fall-out with the management of the SABC and the production house responsible for Generations. The dispute follows unresolved matters pertaining to salary negotiations, conditions of employment, and the payment structure of royalties both retrospectively and moving into the future. 19. Our talented actors are still battling to receive UIF, Pension Funds, Housing Allowances, Car Allowances, Medical Aid and all other benefits that decent work is supposed to cater for. They are categorized unfortunately as freelance workers and this is tantamount to labour broking. Workers of Generations unfortunately have restrictive clause which are prohibiting their abilities to grow and maximize their career life spans. Given the obscure nature of their contracts, they are not in sustainable and secure jobs. Effectively these people are employed on a permanent basis but under conditions that disqualify them for a salary structure of permanent employees. 20. Negotiations have dragged on since October last year and none of the preliminary agreements agreed to have been met by the SABC. These agreements include proposed rates of payment that the producers of the show agreed to but the SABC, as the body that commissions the production of Generations, has not fulfilled. 21. As the ANC Youth League, we call on the SABC management to rescind those letters of expulsion and #BringBackTheGenerations16 immediately. Their demands are valid demands that every honest citizen and employer should understand. As part of our ‘living wage campaign’ we call on the bosses at the SABC to pay the rates that were agreed to with the producers as an immediate intervention. The other strategic demands concerning the conditions of employment and benefits must continue to be negotiated and even sent for arbitration if a deadlock cannot be resolved. 22. SABC’s refusal to meet these demands because of a pedestrian explanation that these actors want to be paid like Hollywood stars is insulting to say the least. We value local production and local content more than this Hollywood that they seem to romanticize. In fact, we believe that local actors should be treated better than Hollywood actors in their own country. We reiterate our call for an increased airing of local production over and above imported content which at times is stale and lacks substance like Stone Age soapies such as Days of our lives etc. As a public broadcaster the SABC has a public duty to create conditions for the development of local filming industry and the growth of black film producers and actors. 23. As the ANCYL we firmly believe that we cannot sit back and watch on as South African talent is exploited and compensated in a manner that is not consistent with its performance. In our discussions with the cast members, it emerged that their dispute is not just a normal negotiation of salaries. It also deals with the highly untransformed creative arts industry in which basic requirements of the Labour Relations Act are undermined. This reality also assisted us to understand the real reasons why many artists end up in conditions of squalor and some of them die under humiliating circumstances as if they have never worked in big film projects. 24. As the ANCYL we have undertaken to pursue the transformation of the creative arts industry working together with all citizens who work in that field. Our struggle for Economic Freedom includes the rights of artists and actors to decent remunerations and contracts that promote the values of decent work. All our actors and artists should actually pledge their support to the dismissed cast since their dismissal was not for selfish reasons but for the benefit of all other actors. 25. We shall be engaging all relevant departments to use this crisis of Generations as an indictment of the transformation deficit that exists in the creative arts industry. The departments of Arts and Culture, The Department of Communications and the Department of Trade and Industry must speedily come on board to effect progressive transformation in this sector as an urgent intervention to rescue our acting and artistic talent from conditions of exploitation and unfair labour practices 20 years into our democracy. Issued by ANC Youth League NTT
Posted on: Wed, 20 Aug 2014 14:32:01 +0000
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