Taxpayers robbed of R19 Million: SABC and Parliament exposed as utterly useless in Pimville SAGA

Veteran actor and SAGA National Chairperson Jack Devnarain has launched a blistering attack on the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications and Digital Technologies, and the SABC. He accused them of gross negligence and deliberate indifference to the exploitation of South African actors, crew, and background performers.

When The Public Dispatch first blew the whistle on the catastrophic R19-million financial hemorrhage at SABC 2’s flagship telenovela Pimville, the politicians charged with public oversight did what they do best, they turned a blind eye.

In April, this committee flatly told The Public Dispatch that the exploitation of workers on a publicly funded set "had not come to the committee's attention."

Today,the politicians and SABC executives have entered a full-blown panic mode.

In a desperate bid to cover their tracks, the SABC allegedly placed its Head of Local Content, Lala Tuku, and several other high-ranking executives on precautionary suspension.

But the industry is not buying the theater. Speaking exclusively to The Public Dispatch, Devnarain tore into the political class, pointing a furious, unsparing finger directly at the SABC and parliamentary oversight committee for facilitating this disaster.

“The oversight committee has worked hard to avoid the impact on cast and crew of the systemic failures of the SABC. They seem to be unmoved by the ruin and havoc the public broadcaster has caused in the performance industry, even though they celebrate the finished products that generate advertising and licensing revenue for the broadcaster. Parliamentarians are comfortably removed from the desperate state of the performance industry, and SAGA will take pleasure in putting this on their agenda. The scope of their oversight is alarmingly blinkered, and the committee needs to urgently revise it's grasp of it's mandate,” he said.

The wall of silence: Parliament and SABC flee from accountability

If anyone required further proof of the utter contempt with which public officials treat accountability, they need look no further than the past 48 hours.

The Public Dispatch submitted formal questions to both the SABC and the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee. We demanded to know how R19 million in taxpayer money was disbursed to Bakwena Productions while actors were left to starve, walk to set, and endure hazardous working conditions.

Despite multiple reminders and ticking deadlines, both the SABC and Parliament failed to respond. They have chosen a cowardly silence. But their silence speaks volumes. It confirms that the broadcaster’s risk-mitigation measures, specifically the "supervising producer" safety net promised to Parliament by SABC CEO Nomsa Chabeli was an absolute fiction.

Devnarain dismissed the SABC’s recent executive suspensions as nothing more than a cosmetic PR stunt designed to shield top brass from the incoming legal and political fallout.

“The suspension is a face-saving exercise that achieves nothing. The damage is done, vulnerable cast, crew, and background actors have not been paid for months of work, and executives on massively inflated salaries now get to sit at home and get paid for doing nothing,” he said.

“The problem is systemic, and the SABC either has no vetting system for producers, or conveniently sidestepped the vetting process to commission Bakwena Productions. Either way, this catastrophe was entirely predictable, and suspending a few executives does not now infuse the public broadcaster with the integrity and transparency it's mandate demands,” he added.

The Background: vetting failures and human sweatshops

The Pimville crisis did not happen in a vacuum. SAGA had loudly and repeatedly warned Auckland Park about Bakwena Productions' toxic financial track record, citing their historical failure to pay workers on the production Pound 4 Pound. The SABC ignored the warnings, axed Muvhango, and handed a massive multi-million-rand prime-time contract to the exact same rogue elements.

The result? Since February 2026, the Pimville set was transformed into a corporate sweatshop. While the production bosses flaunted luxury vehicles and lived a lavish "soft life," the actual creators of the show were subjected to sub-standard catering that caused mass illness, were forced to pay out-of-pocket for their own transport, and were even allegedly held "hostage" on set by a landlord because Bakwena defaulted on location rentals.

Yet, throughout this human rights nightmare, the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture (DSAC) did what it always does: absolutely nothing.

“The DSAC has never offered a meaningful or reassuring intervention when cast and crew have suffered at the hands of criminally incompetent bureaucrats and hostile producers. Our strategy includes petitioning the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on their astonishing indifference to the exploitation of talent and unfair contracts that have remained unchanged since 1997,” he said.

No sympathy for Kagiso Modupe’s "Ignorance" defense

As the legal walls close in, internal warfare has erupted within Bakwena. Co-owner and Head Director Kagiso Modupe recently broke his silence, attempting to position himself as a fellow "unpaid victim" who was told to "stay in his lane" when questioning the company's financial mismanagement.

His industry peers rushed to social media to offer him solidarity but Devnarain is bringing a cold, legal bucket of water to the pity party. The CIPC documents do not care about hurt feelings, and neither does the law.

“Nobody is moved by an appeal for sympathy when a producer and company director is not paid for his additional income stream as a TV director. It's a clear admission that Medupe won the commission for Pimville and wasted no time securing for himself the additional role as Director, ensuring that the budget accommodated his fees. However he may have distanced himself from the company, he remains listed on CIPC as a director, and as such, is required by law to take responsibility for the company's financial obligations,” Devnarain said.

SAGA’s two-pronged war

With the public broadcaster structurally broken and parliamentary oversight exposed as a toothless tiger, SAGA is bypassing the traditional channels of bureaucratic appeal. The union is drawing a line in the sand, shifting its primary focus to the one state organ that has shown teeth.

“SAGA will adopt two strategies, one to address the deplorable exploitation of affected talent on Pimville, and another strategy to bring about systematic regulation. Much of this has to do with the Department of Employment and Labour, and we have made enormous strides in this regard, and to a lesser extent, the Department of Sports, Arts, and Culture.”

The ultimate goal remains unyielding, the formal reclassification of independent creative freelancers into "deemed employees" under the Labour Relations Act.

Had these actors possessed collective bargaining rights and direct, seamless access to the CCMA, Bakwena could never have starved them for ninety days while pocketing R19 million from the state.

The final word

The SABC and Parliament can hide behind ignored media inquiries and closed-door corporate suspensions all they want, but the public has seen behind the curtain. Nineteen million rand of public money has vanished into thin air, a flagship television show has been driven into the dirt, and the vulnerable workers who built it have been left with empty bank accounts and broken careers.