The contentious drama which has seen actors, Vatiswa Ndara and Keke Mphuti take on Ferguson Films has managed to get the whole country talking this week and now Pearl Thusi has weighed in with what she hopes will be a practical solution.
The Fergusons have been widely hailed as the benchmarks of black excellence in South African television and film. However, their reputation was tainted this week when Vatiswa tore into them in an impassioned open letter before Keke followed up with a second blow. Since then, every Thabo, Sizwe and Harriet Khoza has chipped in with their opinions on the saga.
One thing that has been brought up a number of times is that it's not only Ferguson Films who have had to trim the budget by underpaying talent: it's an industry-wide problem and one that needs to be addressed as a whole.
Pearl Thusi went to great lengths to make this same point in her own thread when she commented on the matter before sharing a very constructive suggestion for how we can start helping our actors: by forming actors unions.
Mama Panther began by saying, " I'd love to see "a list" of productions with no respect for actors & other crew exposed but fact is- Trend dies & those brave actors will be punished for speaking, we'll again b asked to open up an industry tht pays peanuts, producers/ channel will continue exploiting artists"
She continued with her monologue:
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Her opinion was well-received (for once!) as many people agreed that it was time for actors to stand together and form a union in the bid for fair payment. However, DJ Fresh came to rain on the parade by revealing how difficult it is to pull this off in reality. The Big Dawg revealed how DJs tried to unionise back in 90s only to be let down by their very own peers:
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Do you think enough actors will listen to Pearl Thusi's suggestion?
