A R5-million cash injection into a TV drama produced by one of President Jacob Zuma's daughters has been roundly criticised as favouritism by KwaZulu-Natal creative arts organisations. The pledge by the eThekwini municipality to fund Uzalo, an SABC 1 drama that stars Leleti Khumalo, raised eyebrows amid questions about whether the municipality's decision was influenced by politics.The drama is shot in KwaZulu-Natal and produced by Gugu Zuma Ncube.story_article_left1Peter Machen, a former Durban International Film Festival manager, said he was appalled that one production was getting so much money."Durban is the most-visited city in South Africa in terms of local visitors. This TV series I am pretty sure will not get much exposure outside South Africa. It's a waste of money. It sounds like a TV version of Nkandla."I work in film and television and I am very happy that the industry in Durban is growing, but if that is where they are putting the money and not in a lot of very significant places, like the film festival ..."The festival has been radically underfunded for all of its existence. If they put a drop of that into the festival it would probably have a lot more economic impact."If they converted that to 50 packages of a R100000 and gave it to 50 filmmakers, they would get 50 films," said Machen.Julie Laurenz of Nguni TV said the city should rather have invested in developing studios for the entire film industry."We are all promoting the city. I am presently working on projects showcasing Durban. But we have budgets and work within the budgets," said Laurenz.Edmund Mhlongo, the artistic director of eKhaya Multi-Arts Centre in KwaMashu, said Uzalo had benefited his organisation, although it would have been nice to have had the money spread more widely .story_article_right2"They use our theatre to do rehearsals and have shot certain scenes with us. So we are indirectly benefiting from the production. I don't know what criteria the city used to grant the money."The R5-million is a good investment, but it would be nice if it could be applied across every project that had a potential to market the city and create jobs," said Mhlongo.The municipality has defended the decision, with spokeswoman Tozi Mthethwa saying that the establishment of a full-time drama series in Durban was a major project for the local film industry."The producers of Uzalo and the SABC have already made a substantial investment into the production."Bringing a production of this nature into the city has required additional investment due to the currently limited industry infrastructure available in the city to support a production of this nature," she said.The city's short-term investment, said Mthethwa, would ensure that "the production remains in the city for the long term, which means that the local crew will continue to be employed and up-skilled"...