Adrian Galley who is the Vice Chairperson of the South African Guild of Actors (SAGA) says more needs to be done to protect actors from being seriously injured while on the job.
Galley’s comments come after a 39-year-old actor, Odwa Shweni reportedly fell to his death while on a film set last week. The Sunday Tribune reported on 17 April 2018 that Shweni fell after he slipped and fell off a 40m cliff.
Speaking to Political Analysis South Africa on Wednesday, 18 April 2018, Galley said that issues of safety on film sets should be the responsibility of the producers of the film itself. He said that most film sets have strict protocols on how to handle potential safety hazards but that accidents do sometimes happen.
“There are safety measures within our industry that are adhered to by and large. How well they are policed…we’ve got to start asking questions,” he said.
“I don’t believe that the industry itself is not aware of the risk involved…we’ve got well established protocols for dealing with risks,” he added.
Galley believes that organising actors into unions could be one way of making sure that they are protected against dangerous situations but says that this might be difficult because most actors are considered independent contractors and not as employees according to various labour laws.
“The fact that we can’t unionise is fair enough but we need to get in some sort of official status in a way we’re handled as artists,” he said.
Galley added that, “Perhaps we should lobby the Department of Labour, Department of Trade and Industry to grant a Guild some kind of status so that we too can contribute to safety committees that are formed under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. At the moment it’s just unions.”
