Parliament vows intervention after Save SA Film Jobs protest exposes industry freefall

On Wednesday, 28 January, film and television professionals protested in Cape Town, accusing the state of crippling their industry. The demonstration led to a breakthrough when the trade and industry committee chair accepted their memorandum and pledged urgent intervention.

Film and television professionals protest in Cape Town on 28 January 2026. (Source: Kara le Roux, Daily Maverick.)

Hundreds of South African film and television workers gathered outside Parliament in Cape Town on Wednesday, 28 January, to protest against the industry’s decline. Marching under the Save SA Film Jobs banner, the group called for immediate government intervention to address the sector’s current instability.

Actors, producers, technicians, writers, crew members and other professionals across the industry value chain arrived clad in black, assembling to face a flatbed truck repurposed as a stage in front of the Parliament building on Plein Street.

The protest was called in response to what the Save SA Film Jobs coalition described as “paralysis” inside the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC), which it said had crippled the Film and Television Production Incentive and triggered a collapse in production activity across the sector.

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