ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY PREPARING FOR RETURN

MBABANE - Almost a year ago now, the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak disrupted the worldwide entertainment industry and artists have suffered the consequences of this.  

After the announcement made by Acting Prime Minister  Themba Masuku in a press release issued on Saturday on the reopening of entertainment and culture events, some local artists and event organisers have come out to say that it will be a long road to recovery for the sector. The entertainment industry is prepping for its return to work after a near total shutdown from COVID-19. What the future holds for the entertainment industry remains unclear, entertainers say. With people having been confined to their homes, generally social lives have moved online and entertainment consumption has risen notably within the at-home segments of television, online gaming and over-the-top (OTT).

As the year started, the local entertainment scene saw some of its artists relocating to neighbouring countries with the hope that their craft will help them with making money. This was mainly because other countries had already eased their lockdown regulations with some partially opening up the entertainment industry which then created an opportunity for artists to start performing again. Shinley Greenz is one of the artists that have decided to relocate and her reasons being that she felt her career was not helping her sustain her life. “I left the country not knowing where I was going to go. I knew no one in South Africa, but I had to take a risk telling myself that I’ll make it better on the other side.  I was tired of performing for free and only to be told that we must appreciate the exposure that the performance came with, imagine when the pandemic started, things just got worse!”

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On the other hand, Mlamuli Smash Mkhonta said “The main reason is how other countries contribute and invest more in the art industry, such that there are more opportunities and money gained from their craft. Look at how other countries have relief funds for artists during the pandemic when all we get this side is excuses. This is raw talent and most of the times artists expect to get the recognition and rewards they deserve, we hardly have that in the country. It’s being overworked and underpaid, its mockery to your unique God-given talent, which is really unfair.

Dj Touch of Soul, on the topic of local artists leaving Eswatini to explore other countries, said; “I think the contributing factor is that our neighbouring countries actually take arts and culture seriously and value their craft hence they opened up their industry and artists are making a decent living. I think our artists are searching for opportunities in our neighbouring countries since there are absolutely no opportunities here at home.”

Most artists have claimed that even with the eased lockdown regulations that now allow entertainment and culture events to take place; they won’t be able to recover as already the 100 people expected to attend won’t help pay up their bills. While other event organisers welcomed consideration to open the industry and have 100 people, Platinum Concept’s Khulekani ‘Karly B’ Mamba said they welcomed and appreciated the eventual decision to open, although it was long overdue, however, the consideration should have been open to venue size as was the case in other sectors. Mamba highlighted that what would be very essential now was an engagement on how best the entertainment scene could be revived as it had suffered a huge blow and was currently in a terrible space.

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“100 people are appreciated, however, honestly speaking, with such numbers, we hardly cover any expenses for events,” said Mamba. Meanwhile, comedian Gedlembane’s manager Simiso Mabundza shared that this was a commendable move by the government; however, he felt that the government should have been specific about where the 100 people maximum applied. He preferred that events happening indoors should have a different minimum capacity from those hosted outdoors. “This would mean that we increase the cost of tickets in order to be able to pay for costs involved in hosting an event, which people cannot afford,” he said. It is worth noting that although the dynamics of South African and Eswatini event scopes are different, the President Cyril Ramaphosa of the Republic announced that venue holders were now permitted to host people occupying up to 50 per cent of each venue’s space capacity.

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