Note to Editors: Attached please find a soundbite in English here and Afrikaans here by Leanne De Jager MPL.
The Gauteng Film Commission’s (GFC) continued failure to create opportunities for Gauteng’s creatives is excluding skilled filmmakers and content creators from an industry that should be creating jobs and driving economic growth. Recently, creatives staged a sit-in at Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s office in protest of the Gauteng Film Commission’s failure to create the necessary opportunities for filmmakers.
This is clearly not a funding problem. The departmental transfer to the GFC has increased from R41.883 million to R42.729 million this financial year. The money is available. What is lacking is leadership, accountability, and a clear strategy to grow Gauteng’s creative economy.
The DA will table questions to the Gauteng MEC for Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, Lebogang Maile, to ascertain how the GFC is spending the R22 million allocated to film permit facilitation, explain why it declined the 2025 South Korea study tour, and outline how it intends to address the concerns raised by creatives during their protest.
The GFC’s own Strategic Outcomes and Targets commit R22 million over five years to Socio-Economic Development and Job Creation through film permit facilitation. However, this investment does not seem to be stimulating the industry. Filmmakers on the ground describe an industry that remains closed off, inaccessible, and unresponsive.
This is concerning because the creative economy has the potential to become one of Gauteng’s strongest engines of economic growth and youth employment. Instead of building that ecosystem, the GFC has presided over stagnation. Its failure is perhaps best illustrated by its decision to decline an invitation to participate in a 2025 study tour to South Korea, including engagements with the internationally acclaimed film industry in Busan.
The visit presented GFC with an opportunity to establish partnerships, attract investment, promote co-productions, facilitate skills transfer and expose Gauteng filmmakers to international markets. Instead of grasping this rare opportunity, the department walked away.
A DA-led Gauteng Provincial Government would present concrete plans to transform the Gauteng Film Commission into a job creator and investment booster. This would be done by reducing bureaucracy, attracting more film projects, helping emerging creatives reach the market, and ensuring the GFC delivers clear economic results