Nearly 2 billion rand ($121 million) in unpaid rebate claims has been mostly cleared, and South Africa’s Department of Trade, Industry and Competition has secured roughly 1.5 billion rand ($91 million) to fund the country’s 25% cash rebate through 2029. The money is moving again in the local film and television industry, and with it, the sector’s core financing instrument.
Nelly Molokoane, the department’s director of film and television production, delivered the figures this week at the Durban FilmMart, framing them as a statement of solvency for a program that had all but ceased to function and left the sector paralyzed for more than two years. “The department is back in business,” she said, while counseling patience as officials work through a backlog of applications and claims dating back to 2024. “We know that the industry now is bleeding, but we are doing our best.”
The repair comes against a weak market backdrop. Cinema exhibition is floundering. Global streaming networks have scaled back their investments in local production. Domestic broadcasters, including the struggling public broadcaster SABC, have been unable to keep the industry afloat. That left the state rebate as the financing on which, by producers’ own account, the sector had come to depend for every film it made.
Producers describe the cost of the freeze in stark terms. “We’re talking thousands of jobs. We’re talking hundreds of companies that have suffered losses because of this. We’re talking projects that have made claims that have not been paid two, three, four years later,” said Paul Buys of Rose and Oaks Media. “It’s really pushed everybody to the limits.”
The turnaround followed political pressure from industry bodies that rallied under the banner of the Save SA Film and TV Jobs Coalition, after often contentious dialogue with government. Delon Bakker, chairperson of the Independent Producers Organization, summed up the shift: “The worst is over. We’re very confident that we’re now moving in the right direction. We’re not sure at what pace, but we are definitely making progress.”
What producers are watching most closely now is the structure of the incentive itself: a modified version of the existing cash rebate, a tax credit scheme, or some alternate proposal. The answer will shape how projects are financed for years to come. Bakker, for his part, wants the truce to hold. “Ultimately, everyone wants this to work, and ultimately, we want to work with the department,” he said. “We want peace. We want a period of prosperity.”
Molokoane, a polarizing figure who has faced calls for her resignation from industry bodies, struck a conciliatory tone in Durban. “We’ve been engaging the industry since last year to say, ‘How best can we support this industry?’ And I know maybe the industry has been informed that the DTIC is not on board,” she said. “We are on board … We would like to work with you in order to ensure that we’ve got a sustainable industry.”
Restoring confidence may prove harder than restoring cash. Foreign counterparts will be looking for reassurance that the rebate is back on solid footing. “It’s going to take some time to get that certainty back … and build trust internationally,” said Steven Markovitz of Big World Cinema.
Meanwhile, producers say the crisis has changed how they think about funding risk. “There’s a willingness to try and do things in this crisis,” Markovitz said. “I do think that we’re going to come out of it looking at other ways to try and break that dependency on DTI subsidies for every film that we do.”
Layla Swart of Yellowbone Entertainment said the pressure has forced a constant rethink: “These obstacles and challenges constantly force us to rethink different ways to do things and different ways to still get our films made and our stories told. And I think despite everything, that’s always what we do. We’re fighters and we’re constantly advocating for the things that work with us.”
For now, local producers are guardedly optimistic that the political goodwill will last, even as they work to build a sustainable film and TV business with or without a functioning incentive program. The Durban FilmMart runs Oct. 9 to 12 in Durban, South Africa.