by Thinus Ferreira
The KwaZulu-Natal provincial government has merged the KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission and KwaZulu-Natal Tourism to form the KwaZulu-Natal Tourism and Film Authority (KZNTAFA) with Sibusiso Gumbi as interim CEO.
Prof. Thandi Nzama is the KZNTAFA chairperson.
Instead of a separate organisation promoting tourism to KwaZulu-Natal and a separate film commission for the province, the provincial government has merged these separate functions.
According to KwaZulu-Natal's department of economic development, tourism and environmental affairs, KZNTAFA will have to focus on "marketing and promoting the tourism and audio-visual industries, facilitating sector development, creating sustainable growth and job opportunities, and addressing historical imbalances in infrastructure, skills, and resource distribution".
The tourism part of KZNTAFA will be tasked to "continue to explore new and innovative ways to profile Destination KwaZulu-Natal through partnerships with mega-events, TV, film and music productions".
According to the KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission in 2022, KwaZulu-Natal was South Africa's fastest-growing film destination in the country and two years ago accounted for 12% of the country’s filming activity.
The merger of the two organisations is supposed to open "up a range of new opportunities for skills development in the areas of local film concept development, packaging, distribution and marketing".
The merger to create KZNTAFA is supposed to "assist in attracting larger film productions, particularly during KwaZulu-Natal's mild winter season". That is what the KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission has been doing anyway over the past years.
KZNTAFA is supposed to "additionally allow the province to tap into South Africa’s existing co-production treaties with Canada, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Australia, New Zealand and Ireland to attract upcoming productions" - again something the KwaZulu-Natal Film Commission has been doing.
