South Africa’s Film & TV Industry Prepares for Its Largest National March

JOHANNESBURG – The South African film and television industry is set to stage its most significant national protest to date, as thousands of workers mobilize to demonstrate under the banner “SAVE SA FILM JOS” on the 28th and 29th of January 2026 in Cape Town and Pretoria.

This landmark event follows nearly a year after the initial February 2025 protest, signalling that the crisis triggered by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC) Film and TV Incentive remains unresolved and has worsened.

Organisers report that the upcoming demonstrations will be notably larger, featuring broader national participation and unprecedented unity from all corners of the industry.

For the first time, producers, actors, writers, directors, animators, crew members, post-production professionals, agents, managers, and service businesses will march together in coordinated national action.

“The scale of this march reflects the scale of the crisis,” said the Save SA Film Jobs Coalition.

“This is an industry fighting for survival after months of inaction and silence from the DTIC.”

The crisis has persisted for nearly two years after approvals for the Film and TV Incentive became stalled.

Adjudication meetings have yet to resume, and productions continue to collapse, pushing the sector to the brink.

This dysfunction has resulted in hundreds of millions of rands in foreign direct investment (FDI) being bottlenecked, damaging one of South Africa’s key creative industries and export earners.

“The continued paralysis is driving job losses inside and outside the sector, business closures, and the flight of international productions to competitor countries,” the coalition warned.

“Without urgent intervention, we face deindustrialisation and the reversal of transformation.”

The coalition organizing the demonstrations is broad and growing, including prominent industry bodies such as Animation SA (ASA), The South African Guild of Actors (SAGA), Independent Producers Organization (IPO), South African Guild of Editors (SAGE), Personal Managers Association (PMA), Independent Directors Association Africa (IDAA), South African Performing Artists Managers Association (SAPAMA), Writers Guild of South Africa (WGSA), and the South African Screen Federation (SASFED).

The coalition represents thousands of workers across the industry value chain, with mobilisation confirmed from production hubs in Gauteng, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and beyond.

“One week out from the demonstrations, the question is, where is the DTIC at this time?” the coalition asked. “We will not be ignored; the industry will speak with one voice.”

The coalition is also appealing to South African citizens to join the demonstrations to protect the country’s capacity to tell and watch its own stories, highlighting the cultural and economic importance of the sector.