Danie Odendaal Productions, producing the Afrikaans soap 7de Laan for the SABC's SABC2 channel settled out of court with scriptwriter and actress Amor Tredoux which Daniel Odendaal fired allegedly due to a "conflict of interest" although she was and is a freelance artist and writer.
On Wednesday morning before the dragged out battle between scriptwriter and producer were to be heard in the High Court in Pretoria, Danie Odendaal Productions settled out of court with Amor Tredoux.
Amor Tredoux was dismissed as a freelance scriptwriter for 7de Laan after she "dared" to also accept a role as actor in Binnelanders, the weekday soap on M-Net's kykNET (DStv 144) channel on MultiChoice's DStv satellite pay-TV platform.
Amor Tredoux claimed R108 330 including interest and legal fees from Danie Odendaal Productions for the undue cancellation of her contract.
Although Amor Tredoux is an independent contractor working as scriptwriter and actress, Danie Odendaal Productions claimed that she wouldn't be able to make the writing deadlines for scripts, and that taking a TV role in a soap like Binnelanders would be a conflict of interest.
It's not clear how being a behind-the-scenes freelance writer on one TV show would have clashed with being a part-time actor and on-air talent in a non-permanent role on another TV show, but Amor Tredoux was shown the door at Danie Odendaal Productions at the end of March 2011.
The only similarity between the one soap set in the fictional hillside in Johannesburg on a free-to-air channel and the other in a fictional hospital in Pretoria on a pay-TV channel and targeting different TV audiences, is that they're both half hour soap productions, and both predominantly Afrikaans.
