PROTESTING actors acted out death scenes outside the SABC offices
in Auckland Park to symbolise how the public broadcaster’s planned
local content budget cuts would "kill" their livelihood, writes Livhuwani Mammburu in The Times.
Some interesting props included hangman’s nooses which demonstrators placed around their necks as they chanted "don’t kill local stories".
The cash-strapped public broadcaster recently announced it planned cutting R500-million worth of local content in a bid to save costs.
Actor Terrance Bridget said that the SABC decision to reduce local content was "an enormous lack of foresight". He said the broadcaster was robbing the industry of its ability to tell South African stories just because American reruns were cheaper home brewed content.
"You rob the nation the chance to watch their own stories," he warned.
He said the planned cut of local content would affect lives of more than 88,000 people whose livelihoods depended on independent film productions.
But independent producer, Michael Lee who had been on hunger strike for the last 18 days said, "enough is enough" with the crisis at the SABC.
Click here to read the full report, posted on thetimes.co.za.
