'SABC must help train actors'

The SABC should be funding the training of young actors in South Africa, because the broadcaster reaps the rewards when they are at their prime, says award-winning actor, director and playwright John Kani.

"In South Africa the theatres create directors and actors so we need to invoice the SABC for that because they get a ready-made director, actor," he told a South African Film and Television Awards nominees breakfast on Thursday. Kani is senior judge for the awards.

He said local theatres needed to challenge public and private broadcasters to fund them. This, he said, was a "key component" of acting schools in London, which received funding from the BBC.

"When they don't pay we state very carefully that we won't work for them. The directors arrive on set and there is nobody there."

Kani challenged South Africa's film and television fraternity to stick together in troubled times, saying there was a lack of unity in the industry when it came to a minimum wage for actors.

story_article_left1

"We saw this on Generations when a friend of mine fired 16 actors. There was no voice from us [actors] because we were working on Muvhango ... we shut our mouths because we were working on 7de Laan."

Kani, who last year featured in the US production Captain America: Civil War, also lashed out at the awards for not reflecting the "population demographics of the country".

"South Africa will produce its own Nelson Mandela story, told by local directors with local actors," he said, criticising local productions starring international actors. These include Anant Singh's 2013 Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom which was directed by British director Justin Chadwick and featured British actors Idris Elba and Naomie Harris.

SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said the broadcaster was open to discussions with Kani if he wanted to raise the matter with it.

"The SABC does not own or have any actors contracted to it. Actors are contracted to production houses who are paid by the SABC ... if we started paying for the development of actors, we may have to do the same for musicians, but we are not closed to this discussion," he said.