photos: The Devi Show/e.tv
by Thinus Ferreira
Casting agent Becky Dube who plunged production of MultiChoice and South Africa's most expensive TV show into scandal admits that she lured hundreds of people from across the country to horrific kiddie tent camps with fake promises of getting roles as Shaka iLembe extras.
Devi Sankaree Govender of The Devi Show on e.tv tracked down the notorious Becky Dube (watch the episode here) who claims that the exploited extras - lured from three provinces hoping for Shaka iLembe walk-on roles only to live in squalor in tents - "consented to that".
The background actors casting scandal led to change, prompting MultiChoice, M-Net and Bomb Productions to implement a code of conduct document it demanded that casting agents working for Shaka iLembe now sign and that it hopes will be adopted through the wider local industry.
Shaka iLembe, produced by Bomb Productions for M-Net's Mzansi Magic (DStv 161) channel, is busy with production on its second season, with a third season that will be filmed in 2025.
Earlier this year before principal photography of the second season started, Becky Dube exploited and demanded that hundreds of people pay her R2000 each - only for them to be set up in tents surrounding Bomb Productions' base camp where filming of scenes in Muldersdrift took place.
Becky Casting demanded that prospective extras pay must pay a R350 "membership fee".
Becky Casting then also demanded that they pay for two so-called "workshops" at R150 each, supposedly to "orientate extras on how things would be" when they get roles on Shaka iLembe.
Over 300 people from Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape then had to cough up an additional R1250 each, only to discover they're getting flimsy kiddie tent accommodation surrounding the Bomb Productions show, without clean water, no food, no electricity or proper ablution facilities.
This was after they had to pay for their own transport to get to Johannesburg.
It means that Becky Dube made over R500 000 from all of the people who paid her - although people who get roles as extras are not supposed to pay a cent and are supposed to get paid for their work.
Thabisile Xulu who wanted to be a Shaka iLembe extra said Becky "was rude and didn't respect us. She treated us as if she had picked us up off the streets. It was as if she had dumped us because she didn't check on us".
After Bomb Productions intervened and told Becky Casting to fix the situation, the hopeful extras were moved to a dilapidated church in Melvern where people slept 13 to a room and eat off the floor.
Extras were then threatened by Becky Casting and told they would not get any work if they spoke out about the conditions and their circumstances.
"She said we were wasting our time speaking to the media because we would be fired," Thabisile Xulu said.
Jack Devnarain, chairman of the South African Guild of Actors (SAGA) told The Devi Show that "having to pay your agent a commission, on top of a rental - it's not just a violation of industry rules - it's just crazy. Ultimately Bomb Productions is responsible for every single person who is going to be on that set".
"It would be right to look at this in the context of human trafficking. The conditions in which they were kept is a misrepresentation. It wasn't what people were told and they certainly didn't get work every day which is what they were promised."
Jack Devnarain said South Africa's TV and film industry "is still playing catch up, trying to establish basic rights for performers and for creatives. It means we are not protected under any basic conditions of employment".
"We should be ashamed as South Africa and we should take full responsibility for the fact that the creative sector is not regulated. We are an anomaly. So we have created a system that punished the most vulnerable people within this sector."
Bomb Productions which is busy filming Shaka iLembe as the biggest and most expensive TV production ever made in South Africa, said it didn't make any promises to Becky Casting for extras to get work.
Together with MultiChoice and M-Net, Bomb Productions has now implemented a strict new code of conduct for casting agents to sign, following the scandal, to prevent any similar occurrences and to prevent being blindsided again.
Thabo Boom, a Bomb Productions producer, told The Devi Show "We hope that the wider industry will take this code of conduct and utilise it so that we try, while we argue for more regulations, that we make sure that we protect extras". He said Bomb Productions will never work with Becky Casting again.
