WILL ESWATINI IMPLEMENT COPYRIGHT LAWS?

MBABANE – Will the country ever finally implement copyright laws?

A copyright is an exclusive right granted by law for a limited period to an author, designer for his or her original work. This question came to the fore once again when news broke that Master KG and Nomcebo’s smashing global hit, ‘Jerusalema’ had been used inappropriately by major companies. According to an interview with Capricorn FM, Master KG’s lawyer, who also handles the legal and business affairs for Open Mic Productions, Dumisani Motsamai, explained the reasons why Warner Music SA chose to demand money from big companies who have used the global hit song for their ‘own capital gains’. “We are in a partnership with Warner Music internationally and I think in a nutshell, the partnership ensures that Master KG finds an easy way into the market.

Royalties

“When a song is used as sync for an advert, those people who created it are paid something we call royalties. So, the calls for the licence fees in respect to the challenge is limited to those that clearly skipped the mark, and when you look at it you can see that this was more than a challenge – this was people who were pushing their brand full stop,” he said. Dumisani explained that determining whether a company used it for their own benefit or for the worldwide challenge was a bit challenging, but in some cases it was quite clear that they were adverts. This then sparked a conversation of copyright laws in the country that are yet to be passed into law. Eswatini Music Association’s (SWAMA) President Lutfo Dlamini disclosed that the country currently had no copyright laws. Dlamini disclosed that there were a lot of artists whose songs had been used on TV and radio without them being rightfully compensated in what is called royalties.

A royalty is a payment made by one party to another that owns a particular asset, for the right to ongoing use of that asset. “Local artists’ songs are being aired and played on radio and TV without the artists being compensated for their work because we do not have a Copyright Act in place to assist for the artists to be paid for that,” he said. The minister further said there was no money that was directly allocated towards the implementation of the Act when looking at the recently announced allocation of funds towards the sector by Minister of Finance Neal Rijkenberg.

Allocation

With regards to the E3 979 360 that was allocated towards the Eswatini National Council of Arts and Culture (ENCAC; Dlamini asserted that since it was the same amount as last year’s allocation, he said by merely looking at both figures, there was no money for arts development and disclosed that even this year would be the same since there was no change in the allocation of funds. Worth noting, the ENCAC, is an administrative organisation, under the Ministry of Sports Culture and Youth Affairs, with delegated powers, to preserve, promote and co-ordinate all matters of Arts and Culture, in the country supervised by the Directorate Office under the ministry. He further said as SWAMA, they were not consulted by the ENCAC with regards to the budget and said he would not comment further on it. However, he said in reality, the artists were currently going through a bad patch which owed to the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic.

Bill

He further highlighted that the bill was signed by His Majesty King Mswati III in 2018, which is three years since it has not been passed on to law. This he said, was a problem which lied with the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Trade.
The legal adviser from the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Trade, Nobuhle Matsebula, firstly confirmed that the Copyright Act was passed in Parliament in 2018. She explained that they had to seek assistance from The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) which is a global forum for intellectual property (IP) services, policy, information and cooperation. Their mission is to lead the development of a balanced and effective international IP system that enables innovation and creativity for the benefit of all. She said they needed technical assistance in setting up the regulations.  Matsebula shared that the WIPO representatives came in 2018 to help set up the regulations and in 2019 the regulations were approved. “The Copyright Act is long overdue for the country. We understand the plight faced by the local industry and believe that the entertainment sector can help improve the economical scale of the country. We had challenges in setting up the Act as it was technical. It is worth sharing that the Copyright Act is not the only law that requires assistance in setting up. In 2019, regulations were approved and we were still waiting for a consultant that will facilitate the Act as we need to also have a gathering with all the stakeholders to share their views as it is their Act,” she explained.

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