by Thinus Ferreira
The cast and crew of Muvhango on SABC2 has gone on strike for the second time in three months after they have once again not been paid their salaries, with SABC legal busy with an investigation after the Word of Mouth Pictures show fired CEO Mandla kaNozulu over alleged mismanagement of millions of rand.
City Press on Sunday reported that the Muvhango cast and crew went on strike after they were called to a meeting on Tuesday this past week where the SABC were once again blamed for non-payment.
The ongoing non-payment to the show's talent and behind-the-scenes crew is highly embarrassing since it keeps happening regularly without whatever issues are causing it, being sorted out by the SABC and Word of Mouth Pictures.
Adding to the embarrassment is that the non-payment issue comes on the back of Word of Mouth's botched so-called "Silver Jubilee" 25-year anniversary celebration for Muvhango in 2022, the SABC constantly saying it is improving payment issues to Muvhango and other production companies supplying content, as well as Muvhango's plummeting viewership on SABC2 which TV ratings continue to fall.
The current Muvhango cast and crew strike comes within three months of the last Muvhango cast and crew stay-away in November 2022 when they were also not paid.
"We were told that our salaries will be paid later and there is a delay once again because the SABC has delayed paying the company and that affected our salaries," a Word of Mouth Pictures staffer who works at the Johannesburg office of the production company told the newspaper.
Meanwhile the SABC's legal department is busy investigating the alleged mismanagement of over R14 million of Word of Mouth Productions' money by former CEO Mandla kaNozulu who was fired in December 2022 after two years on the job.
Mmoni Seapolelo, SABC spokesperson, told TVwithThinus that "The SABC can confirm that the payment to Word
of Mouth Productions was effected as per the agreement between Word of Mouth
and the SABC".
