by Thinus Ferreira
South Africa's film and TV industry is furious with the government and its trade, industry and competition minister Parks Tau, with talks to try and fix the country's broken film rebate system that has collapsed for a third time and the biz coalition now demanding that film incentive programme boss Nelly Molokoane is fired.
The country's film industry is now also calling on South African president Cyril Ramaphosa to urgently intervene, saying the entire situation is an untenable crisis.
Because of its shockingly poor leadership, the department of trade, industry and competition (DTIC) is once again on track to vastly underspend its allocated film support allocation of this financial year.
The local film industry is vowing a new month-long round of public protest set to start across South Africa from 28 January 2027, as the incompetent, aggressive and recalcitrant Nelly Molokoane remains in place as the head of the government department's imploded and wayward film and television incentive unit.
South Africa's entire film industry wants Nelly Molokoane fired but Parks Tau has so far refused to remove her, despite apparently not doing her job.
With a massive backlog in payouts totalling hundreds of millions of rand, as well as a backlog in working and approving applications for the South African government's film incentive programme, Parks Tau, Nelly Molokoane and others in the government department have inflicted massive damage on South Africa as an option as an international filming destination, as well as on local production companies.
South Africa introduced the film and television incentive in 2004. The last adjudication committee to approve new applications before 1 October 2026 sat in March 2024 - almost three years ago.
The Save SA Film and TV Jobs Coalition confirms that talks have yet again broken down with the DTIC - for the third time - with the government simply not responding on any of the promises the department andNelly Molokoane have made.
The Save SA Film and TV Jobs Coalition was founded and is led by the Independent Producers Organisation (IPO) and brings together 18 industry bodies in South Africa, including and representing producers, writers, performers, crew, editors, cinematographers, stunt performers, animation, documentary, post-production and finishing, talent management, festivals and markets.
The coalition;s members are Animation SA (ASA), Cinegear, Creative 20, the Documentary Filmmakers Association (DFA), Independent Directors Association Africa (IDAA), Independent Producers Organisation (IPO), Personal Managers Association (PMA), South African Background Actors Guild (SABAG), South African Finishing Artists and Imaging Technicians (SAFAITS), South African Guild of Actors (SAGA), South African Guild of Editors (SAGE), South African Performing Artists Managers Association (SAPAMA), South African Screen Federation (SASFED), South African Society of Cinematographers (SASC), the South African Stunts Association (SASA), the Soweto Film Festival, the Soweto Film Market, as well as the Writers Guild of South Africa (WGSA).
This coalition wrote to Parks Tau on 22 October to place it on record that talks have broken down again, and gave the DTIC 7 days to fix the problem.
"That period has now expired without a response from Parks Tau," the coalition reveals that will now report the issue directly to the portfolio committee on trade, industry and competition in South Africa's parliament.
The coalition is also calling on South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa directly, to invene in this massive crisis.
On 10 August, days before the industry's second appearance before the parliamentary committee, the DTIC and the coalition signed the DTIC's new Film and Television Incentive Negotiation Framework and Heads of Agreement.
This new agreement was supposed to be the start of a new chapter of the DTIC and South Africa's film biz working together to sort out the massive backlog and to get the millions paid that is owed to producers, as well as to restart the incentive programme and to approve new applications.
So bad has the DTIC been that it blatantly flouted what it promised to do with the new agreement. The administration protocols for the current guidelines have not been agreed jointly, the working groups to develop the new guidelines have no started and the deadline of 30 October 2026 to complete the new set of guidelines came and went.
"Multiple letters from the coalition to Parks Tau have gone unanswered this year," the coalition says.
"Earlier last month, on 7 October 2026, the coalition wrote, warning that the engagement was at credible risk of breaking down, and offered Parks Tau the opportunity to intervene before it did."
"That letter went unanswered, as did the follow-ups to it."
The coalition explains that on 22 October 2026, it notified Parks Tau "that the engagement had broken down and afforded the DTIC 7 days in which to remedy the position. That letter has also gone unanswered."
"The industry is left to ask how a working relationship with the DTIC is to be maintained when its correspondence is not responded to."
"It is a continued pattern of industry input going unanswered, and it demonstrates clearly that there remains a problem within the DTIC that the industry has repeatedly raised."
The coalition says it is not just concerned about the DTIC's lack of keeping its side of the agreement.
"A government department that puts its signature to an agreement must be expected to stand by it. Where it does not, nothing agreed can be relied upon."
"This is not the first time an undertaking given by the DTIC to the industry has not been adhered to."
The coalition also notes that "At the first working group after the parliamentary engagement, on 21 August 2026, the DTIC's deputy director-general told the meeting that the department wanted progress, that it would not allow any organisation to delay or derail the discussions, and that the objective was a single joint report to parliament".
"He pledged honesty and frankness, and said there would be no circumstances where things are hidden."
The coalition says it will now "report to parliament separately and how the DTIC is handling the current administrative backlog remains largely unknown. This is another clear example where the DTIC does not stand by what it says".
"The Coalition will not accept anything less than a strong, reliable incentive system that the industry and the department have agreed on together."
According to the research from the Save SA Film and TV Jobs Coalition, the DTIC will once again underspend its allocation for the film and TV incentive this financial year.
"That is the consequence of poor leadership of the incentive programme and of a poor understanding, within the DTIC of what the incentive programme is and how it should work, taking into account the realities of production. The Coalition will demand accountability for this," it notes.
The coalition now calls on South African president Cyril Ramaphosa to "intervene directly, and does so only because the position has become untenable".
"We are asking the presidency to step in because it is no longer tenable that a department lacks both the capability and, more importantly, the willingness to resolve what is, in most respects, a normal administrative matter."
The coalition is fed up with Nelly Molokoane.
"Nelly Molokoane remains the head of the film and television incentive unit, and hence the unilateral and obstructive approach the DTIC has taken in dealing with the crisis continues," the coalition says.
"The Coalition has made clear to the DTIC that Nelly Molokoane will not be accepted by the industry as leading this incentive any further. This is a red line for the industry."
"The Coalition has, again, called for her removal from the Film Unit, and from any further decision-making on the incentive, a position adopted by resolution of its members."
"Yet the DTIC has failed to hold her accountable for the past and continuing failures in the management of the incentive programme."
The coalition will now again do public protests on 28 January to 27 February 2027, similar to earlier this year because the coalition says the DTIC "has done very little to resolve this crisis".
"The Coalition is calling for accountability, and for action to be taken swiftly. The action will not end until the DTIC resolves this matter on a basis that works for the industry, for the DTIC and for the country."
"Without urgent and decisive intervention, the damage already caused by the ineffective administration of the Film and Television Production Incentive will only deepen, placing at risk an industry that contributes significantly to South Africa's economy and the livelihoods of the thousands who depend on it," the coalition says.
"The problem has never been the incentive itself - it is what has been done to the running of it. Without corrective action now, the consequences may prove irreversible, leaving an entire sector, its workforce and its considerable economic potential out in the cold."
