by Thinus Ferreira
With flooded sets and casts and crew unable to get to work, the destructive rainfall and disastrous flooding in KwaZulu-Natal also damaged South Africa's TV and film industry as it disrupted production of Uzalo as the country's biggest TV show as well as other television series filmed in the province, with at least one locally-shot film that has to pause and push out its start of filming to next month.
South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province is dealing with a growing humanitarian disaster with more than 448 people who have lost their lives so far and billions of rand of damage to infrastructure and property.
The country's cabinet has declared a National State of Disaster in response to floods while KwaZulu-Natal based productions, making some of the biggest shows on South African television are also assessing the damage the floodwater wrought and picking up the pieces.
Uzalo on SABC1 and Durban Gen on e.tv that saw flooded sets and Imbewu on e.tv - all filmed in the province - had to halt production but have and are resuming production again.
The KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission (KZFC) tells TVwithThinus "the floods affected every community in KwaZulu-Natal. Most of the work in TV and film had to be put on hold due to lack of electricity, water and the roads being closed".
"We have not received any updates regarding most productions that had to be paused, however as productions usually take place around the KwaZulu-Natal area, there is a high possibility that they were also affected."
"A feature film called The Score was due to film from 19 April but due to the devastation experience in the province, they had to delay production until 16 May. We are still in the process of determining whether there were other projected affected."
The KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission says it is waiting to hear from producers to indicate what assistance they would need from the commission's side in order to get back in schedule with their filming processes.
"As the industry and an agency of the state, we are comforted by the fact that the government has made an estimation of the loss and are working on ensuring that people's livelihood are restored."
Stained Glass TV, the production company responsible for Uzalo - the most-watched show on South African television and most-watched show on the SABC that drew over 7 million viewers in March on SABC1 - told TVwithThinus that the prime time telenovela had to shut down production for 5 days but has resumed filming.
The prime time soap Durban Gen, also produced by Stained Glass TV for eMedia's e.tv that lured 2.51 million viewers in March, also had to deal with flooded sets and shut down production for one day and for two days worked with cast and crew who could make it to work.
"Like most of KwaZulu-Natal our productions were also gravely impacted
by the floods," Stained Glass TV spokesperson Nomfundo Zondi tells TVwithThinus.
"On both productions, we couldn't shoot for numerous days due to
our sets being flooded and cast and crew being unable to make the journey to work.
Lastly, all location and street scenes were temporarily halted simply because the
weather wasn't conducive."
"Fortunately, we were able to quickly make the
necessary reparations to the sets to resume production. Our hearts are with all those impacted, It is indeed a tough
time for KwaZulu-Natal as many have not only lost jobs and homes but loved ones as well," she says.
Production will resume today on Imbewu, the prime time soap from Grapevine Productions on e.tv that lured 3.44 million viewers in March and which is also filmed in the flood-ravaged province.
"Due to weather conditions and flooding, some personnel were severely impacted and unable to travel to work," spokesperson Nilesh Singh says.
"As such, the production was halted on 12 and 13 April. A production break of one week for Easter, starting on 14 April was already scheduled and the production will resume as normal on Wednesday".
