by Thinus Ferreira
"Stop it or I'll stop it," said South Africa's uninformed police minister Bkehi Cele on Wednesday when he further damaged the image not just locally but internationally of South Africa's struggling film and TV industry as he wrongly ordered the shocking shutdown of the filming of a new TV commercial with a valid permit on a Cape Town beach while spouting non-sensical and non-applicable Covid-19 regulations.
During an altercation on Cape Town's scenic Camps Bay beach on Wednesday the caustic Bheki Cele doing a "beach inspection" summarily ordered around 16 police officers to abruptly halt the Red Petal Productions production on a new TV advert, despite the production company that had already applied for and had been issued with a valid permit to film on location.
The TV commercial production also had its Covid-19 compliance officer in place, checking and monitoring everything.
The Red Petal Productions filming was permitted by Cape Town's Film Permit Office as required by the Film By-Law regulating filming on public spaces.
Co-incidentally JP Smith, Cape Town's mayoral committee member for safety and security, happened to be at Camps Bay at the same time for a beach inspection as well.
A clash ensued when Bheki Cele, who referred to JP Smith as "PJ", insisted on the production being shut down, while JP Smith said the film shoot had already applied for and was approved for filming on the beach and had a valid permit.
Bheki Cele and his heavy-handed entourage that his publicist Lirandzu Themba called the "Cele Beach Watch" and that included 4 generals, later called in further police reinforcements to Camps Bay to specifically ensure that filming of the TV commercial remains shut down.
Bheki Cele as a member of South Africa's so-called National Coronavirus Command Council appeared clueless and uninformed how TV and film productions work since and during Covid-19 or that film and TV production sets have been classified as workspaces with very specific risk-adjusted strategies and rules to continue operating.
The Camps Bay production that had a price tag of around R2.9 million, employing around 75 people on Wednesday and strictly adhering to the Covid-19 safety protocols for filming underwritten by the Commercial Producers Association of South Africa (CPASA), lost around R1.5 million on Wednesday.
According to the regulations published in South Africa's latest Government Gazette of 15 December 2020 there is no ban nor any regulations to outlaw the approved filming of commercial television and film productions on beaches that are adhering to stringent Covid-19 prevention protocols.
"Bheki Cele instructed 16 South African police officers to come down and shut a film shoot on Camps Bay beach which has a legal permit from the city and is employing 75 people," said JP Smith who announced that the city of Cape Town would be applying for an urgent court interdict to prevent Bkehi Cele from "illegally interfering with this film shoot".
"We are approaching the Western Cape High Court on an urgent basis for an interdict against the South African police's interference in a film production on Camps Bay beach," said JP Smith.
"The next time residents of the Cape Flats or the townships are wondering why you can't find police, maybe it's because the national minister is busy deploying them to score political points."
On Wednesday evening JP Smith said that "After forcefully stopping the film company from working and holding them hostage the South African police just walked over to us here at the film shoot and said that filming can proceed tomorrow".
"I hope they get sued and landed with a massive cost order as they have now clearly figured out that they were wrong and that the minister instructed them unlawfully".
Lirandzu Themba, Bheki Cele's publicist, in a statement, said that "an activity by a private company on the Camps Bay beach was shut down during the minister’s walkabout".
"While it was permitted by the City of Cape Town, upon closer inspection, the production was not compliant with what is permitted on beaches, as stipulated on the Covid-19 regulations."
"According to the permit of the production company that was handed to the South African police, the production would go against the very rules set out by president Cyril Ramaphosa which are clear on what is permitted on beaches and therefore could not be allowed to continue for now."
On Thursday morning JP Smith told eNCA that "this morning there were again police officers blocking them and preventing them from carrying on which I think is very problematic. We're waiting for the judge to hear the case so that we can get that urgent interdict and prevent the minister from interfering".
UPDATE: Thursday 17 December 2020 19:00 - Toni Marais, executive producer at Red Petal Productions, in an interview on Thursday at Camps Bay after the international TV commercial was shut down again, said "I'm very disappointed, I'm very angry. We're doing everything we can to try and work around this so that our international client get the shoot that they've come to South Africa for to get".
Toni Marais said "it's been very frustrating and very hard because I have not been given a reason as to why I've been shut down".
After Red Petal Productions handed in all of the necessary documentation at the Camps Bay Police station, they were once again prevented from filming by the South African Police on Thursday.
"One shoot day costs around R1.5 million and we've had to pay all of the crew to come out today and now we have to send them all home until we can understand what is happening and why it's happening".
Meanwhile, the location manager for the production, Derek Raeburn, told News24 on Thursday that Red Petal Productions is scouting for a possible new filming location now for the Russian TV commercial that had been filming at the lifesaver's clubhouse and can't wait any longer for a possible court interdict decision since the expensive shoot was losing too much money and valuable filming time.
"The police came in and said 'Shut this thing down'. We don't know why. They can't give us a reason why. Officially we're totally legal, permit wise and they've shut us down. The problem is that a lot of film crew haven't worked since March because of Covid," said Derek Raeburn.
"There are so few jobs here as it is. And the one or two jobs we get, they close us down in the middle of a shoot."
"What are the foreign people who come here going to say about this when they go back to their various countries? They can't be guaranteed to film and work here with an official permit. How is this going to affect the rest of filming in Cape Town?"
Andrey Shkatov, a TV producer from Moscow, Russia, told News24 on Thursday that "We came here to South Africa to bring some business and to shoot a very beautiful commercial here on this sandy beach with white sand for our client".
"The local company we work with they've got all the papers. They fully made all the necessary agreements with the local government and suddenly our shooting didn't start today, so we're a little bit upset and we're confused and we need to move our shooting somewhere else".
UPDATE Thursday 17 December 2020 20:00 - According to the City of Cape Town on Thursday another 11 film shoots, representing about R24 million in lost revenue, have withdrawn from planned filming in the city in the 24-hours since police minister Bheki Cele's altercation with a film crew that the South African police service shut down on Thursday for a 2nd day without any reasons given.
