by Thinus Ferreira
The crew and cast of Word of Mouth Pictures have been unpaid yet again at the end of May, saying that the production company hasn't been been paid by the SABC, while the South African public broadcaster suddenly also removed the remaining episodes of the cancelled Muvhango from SABC2 on Thursday without explanation.
While the SABC's cancelled Venda weekday soap on SABC2 is only supposed to end airing on 8 August, the show's remaining episodes abruptly disappeared on the SABC2 on Thursday and Friday 5 and 6 June, with the omnibus repeat block on Saturdays also removed without any explanation to viewers or the media.
According to insiders, the Muvhango crew and cast have gone unpaid at the end of May.
The crew and cast were told by the production company that they had hoped the SABC would pay last week, so that the people working on the show could be paid by Monday 2 June.
This is similar to what happened after the SABC cancelled 7de Laan on SABC2 when Danie Odendaal Productions went unpaid for the remaining episodes still to be delivered.
Danie Odendaal Productions then refused to send further episodes for broadcast on SABC2 unless payment was received from the struggling SABC.
Mmoni Ngubane, SABC spokesperson, didn't respond to media queries about the non-payment of the Muvhango cast or why remaining Muvhango episodes suddenly stopped airing on SABC2 on Thursday this week.
The Muvhango cast and crew on the Duma Ndlovu-produced show have gone unpaid numerous times in the past - both due to mismanagement at the production company, as well as not being paid by the technically insolvent SABC.
Muvhango extras are also waiting to be paid.
Muvhango background actors are also demanding payment they haven't received yet from Nonkululeko Ndlovu's Turning Heads Casting Agency.
Nonkululeko Ndlovu is the daughter of the troubled Duma Ndlovu who created Muvhango. Duma Ndlovu has been charged with tax evasion totalling R25 million and he appeared in court in October 2024.
Muvhango that got cancelled in 2024 when its contract for a shortened 130-episode season ran out but then got a belated one-year new contract of 260 episodes for a 26th season.
That final reprieve for the long-running show has now also ran out and Muvhango is now set to be replaced by a new drama series entitled Pimville Queens.
Pimville Queens is produced by Bakwena Productions which is also notorious for its non-payment of cast and crew as well as service suppliers.
It's still unclear why the SABC have decided to do business with Bakwena Productions of Kagiso Modupe, Rashaka "Rush" Moufhe and Brenda Mukwevho, with SABC executives fully aware of Bakwena Productions' troubled past with payments.
Nomsa Chabeli, SABC CEO, says she believes Pimville Queens will be "successful from a launch perspective".
For SABC2 we're introducing a new telenovela starting in August, which is going to be replacing the existing Muvhango".
She said that "Come August, we are launching a new telenovela called Pimville on SABC2, and based on that we will be really driving that audience share back to SABC2.
