Filmmakers believe South Africa’s film and TV industry is on the brink of collapse unless the government urgently rejuvenates the broken film rebate system and allows greater transparency around it.Odirile Mekwa, MD of production house Quizzical Pictures, which has produced international hits such as Reyka, Intersexions and Hopeville, knows more than most what the production rebate fiasco has cost, yet for the first time in months he is quietly optimistic.“We’re losing more jobs, the industry is losing credibility, and also losing international foreign direct investment as the whole system continues to backlog,” Mekwa says.The figures and loss to South Africa are staggering. Industry representatives told parliament’s portfolio committee on trade, industry & competition this month that the delays have already cost the country about R822m in production spend and 1,850 jobs this financial year alone, with roughly R700m in applications stuck in a backlog after adjudication meetings stalled for more than two years.Mekwa has personal experience of what this is costing the country. Quizzical Pictures recently lost a co-production with an Australian production company, based on the work of an author born and raised in South Africa and Eswatini but now based in Australia. The project had been in development for years and involved the BBC, the streamer Stan and Amazon, all three committed to pre-buying the show. It collapsed, waiting for the rebate committee to convene and make a decision.“We originally applied in 2024,” Mekwa says. “It was meant to create around 300 jobs … and bring in more than R100m in foreign direct investment. In the end, it fell over on the last hurdle because of local funding.”However, Mekwa believes that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Recently, the Save SA Film and TV Jobs Coalition and the department of trade, industry & competition reached an agreement to restart the incentive programme, which has processed no new applications since 2024. Adjudication of the backlog is scheduled to resume on September 30. The department has also indicated that it is in talks with National Treasury about a more fiscally sustainable rebate structure.“Earlier this year I was pessimistic,” Mekwa says. “We’d marched to parliament at the beginning of the year, and we were mandated to come to the table for the debate. We had our meetings, but everything stalled, with the [department] saying they didn’t have sufficient funding. So we went back to parliament to report once again that things were not moving and were at a stalemate.”However, recent talks, he says, produced “agreements in principle from the government on how to get funding into this programme resuscitated and get it going again, and also serious discussion about how the rebate will look in the future”.There is a reason for that shift in tone. The “contingent liability” the department has blamed for freezing the programme fell from about R2bn in 2021 to R255m by June 2026, and the department’s 2026/27 budget allocation of R236m has now been confirmed.However, there are still clearly issues to resolve. The coalition said talks had deadlocked as recently as July 25, and MPs at the hearing questioned whether clearing historical liabilities means much if the incentive itself still isn’t working. All eyes are now on September 30, when adjudication is scheduled to resume.“I’ve gone through the emotions but I’m optimistic,” Mekwa says, pointing to what is at stake beyond the balance sheet. “You see so many creatives being put out of work or having had to get out of the industry already. Lots of people have lost jobs. Lots of people have lost their houses and their cars. Lots of people have seen their children taken out of school.”What makes the industry worth fighting for, in his view, is how few barriers it puts up.“You don’t need to be anyone, or hold any title, to come into it. Almost anyone can come in. Once you’re in, you learn the skills, you build up a high level of skill, and it also pays well. If you think about the country, we have a job creation problem, and every production creates hundreds of jobs for people who don’t necessarily need a chartered accountancy certificate or any other qualification.”If the South African film industry hadn’t stalled thanks to the rebate question, Mekwa believes the country might now be in the same position as South Korea. Over the past decade, the South Korean television industry has gone from a heavily censored, domestic medium into a multibillion-dollar global export, driven by deregulation, fierce creative competition and heavy streaming investment. Korean content now reaches hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide, and Mekwa sees no reason South Africa couldn’t follow a similar path.“We really need the rebate back in order to make the international breakthrough,” he says. “A perfect example is Korea, which has gone from one breakout hit every couple of years to being a permanent fixture globally. I’m not saying South Africa needs to produce 50% of what the world watches. However, going from one hit every two years to 3% or 4% of the global slate would be transformative. And it cannot be the responsibility of one actor, one show, one director or one production house. It has to be the industry and the country rising together.”Mekwa’s view is that you can chase international deals without giving up on the local market, which is as important and has its own role to play. “Increasingly, as an industry, we need to be export-orientated. But that can’t be every producer’s strategy. There’s a lot of work that’s local and specific, that doesn’t need to and shouldn’t be forced to travel,” he says. “If you chase international appeal too hard, you lose local appeal. It’s a balancing act. Even as you go abroad, you have to keep a strong local base. That’s what gives your work its distinct flavour and keeps you sharp.”Business Day