by Thinus Ferreira
The extremely upset, unpaid crew and cast of another BET Africa (DStv 129) show, forced to sell gear to pay rent and buy food, are ready to go to court in a type of class action case after Kagiso Modupe of Bakwena Productions failed to pay them for the Paramount Africa drama series Pound 4 Pound.
Crew members and actors who worked on Pound 4 Pound, produced by Bakwena Productions for Paramount Africa's BET Africa (DStv 129) channel, haven't been paid for months by the production company.
Kagiso Modupe made several false promises and once again promised them that they would finally be paid at the end of October. But the date of 31 October once again came and went with no payment.
Kagiso Modupe hasn't responded to requests seeking comment.
The Pound 4 Pound crew and cast are furious after Modupe won a Golden Horn at the 18th South African Film and Television Awards this past Saturday in the category for Best supporting actor in a TV comedy for Netflix South Africa's Y'oh! Christmas.
In his boastful acceptance speech, Modupe on stage claimed that he had created 2 000 jobs in the local film and TV industry and that he is one of the only producers to pay actors "royalties".
Yet the crew and cast of Pound 4 Pound, starring actors like Enhle Mbali, Mduduzi Mabaso, Gabisile Tshablala, Nicole Bessick and Brandon Auret haven't been paid for months.
They were first promised that they would be paid by mid-September.
Then it became 25 September.
Then Modupe promised them in a message: "Team, please note we will start making payment from 17 October with targeted completion by 30 October so all final payments are done".
Both the dates of 17 October and 30 October came and went. By yesterday no payments were made.
This is the third TV show commissioned by Paramount Africa where the cast and crew were not paid and have struggled to get their monies due.
Notably, Pound 4 Pound is also the third show where Paramount Africa paid a portion towards the overall production costs with the production company that had to put up the other portion.
The same financial problems and non-payment issues happened in each of these three production cases, with the other two being Clive Morris Productions (CMP) shows.
CMP made Isono and ran into payment problems and after that the troubled Queendom for BET had to shutdown earlier this year, only to restart and immediately again failed to pay the cast and crew at the end of September.
When Bakwena Productions failed to pay the Pound 4 Pound production in September Kagiso Modupe initially blamed Paramount Africa.
In a voicenote he told the cast and crew that the non-payment was BET Africa's fault and that "This is beyond our control. The channel has its own processes of how it operates and because it's an international company, money is not readily available. There are processes that we need to follow, and it needs to go overseas to be approved before it comes to our account".
"We’ve been promised since last week that the money is going to come in. Our payment has been finally loaded and the money should be coming in this week."
That didn't happen. Paramount Africa also disputed Modupe's message to the crew and cast, saying that all money owed was paid over to Bakwena Productions.
In response to questions in a media query, Monde Twala, Paramount Africa senior vice president and general manager and lead for BET International, told TVwithThinus "BET and Paramount acknowledge the recent reports regarding payment concerns related to the production of Pound 4 Pound".
"We take these matters seriously and want to assure all involved parties that we are committed to finding a resolution. We have engaged with Bakwena Productions and await a cost report to ensure that any outstanding payments are processed accordingly."
"We would like to clarify that BET is up to date with all payments made to Bakwena Productions and that the production company is responsible for disbursing payments to the cast and crew."
"We appreciate the hard work and dedication of all cast and crew members and are in ongoing communication with Bakwena Productions to ensure any outstanding payments are addressed as swiftly as possible."
Besides sending a letter of demand to Bakwena Productions, Brandon Auret has taken the fight for their money for working on Pound 4 Pound public, nothing that "BET Africa and Paramount Africa flighting a show that has not paid its people is a poor show of morals".
"This is not even about what is owed to me. An entire production crew with families and payments to be made, while massive weddings are enjoyed is sick and disgusting."
MultiChoice declined to comment when asked what the Randburg-based pay-TV operator made of Auret's saying it is "a poor show of morals" for a show to be broadcast on DStv where people have not been paid.
Brandon Auret says the cast and crew - some of whom have had to resort to selling gear to pay rent - will now start a type of class action lawsuit to get what they're owed.
Brandon Auret told TVwithThinus on Friday "We gave Kagiso Modupe the benefit and we gave him the doubt. So, it's off to court we go".
