Not funny as crew are not paid for comedy
TV ACTOR and executive Vusi Zion has been accused by actors and production staff of owing them hundreds of thousands of rands after his production company failed to pay them for work done.
Zion, formerly Twala, was commissioned by the SABC through his company Moja Movies to produce the second season of the sitcom Ithuba Lokugcina which was scheduled to be on the screens in May.
However, after allegedly failing to pay the actors and other workers, the show was never completed and it did not appear on TV as planned.
“I have nothing to say about that,” Zion said. He hung up afterwards.
He did not respond to questions sent to him via SMS.
SABC confirmed that the sitcom was scheduled to be aired in May.
“Unforeseen circumstances can occur during production and as a broadcaster we make provision for that,” SABC spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said.
He declined to divulge further information because “contract issues are confidential between the producer and the SABC”.
Mzwakhe Mathenjwa, who was doing grips, said he had to borrow money from friends and relatives to bury his wife after Zion failed to pay him.
“Those people owe us a lot. Personally the production owes me R95 000. They need to be exposed because our lives were changed after the whole thing. We worked 12-hour shifts six days a week and got nothing for our efforts,” he said.
Actress Phumeza Mdabe, who was the lead actress on the sitcom, said she was owed about R50 000.
“We shot the whole month of April and when we were supposed to get paid there was a problem with the production.
“I feel like our industry is not regulated. There is no law to protect artists when such things happen,” said Mdabe.
Another crew member, who did not want to be named, said the incident put him in the red by R25 000.
He said he wanted his money because he rejected other work opportunities as he wanted to honour his contact with the production.
“We worked 12 hours every single day on the set. On the day we were supposed to get paid we didn’t get the money; we decided to stop working,” he said.
He said when Zion was called in to address the crew, he stood in front of them and said he knew nothing about why we were not paid. He promised everything would be sorted in three days.
“It turns out he knew all along that he was not going to pay us. That is what pisses me off. He had the cheek to come and stand in front of us and lie,” he said.
He said after the incident he had to rent out his house and live in his studio to keep his head above water.
The crew members say they later received e-mails informing them that the company was liquidated last month.
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