Audition payments are a fraud

| Tuesday June 4, 2013 00:00

It is a good sign for our film industry, which seems to be struggling to grow. However, there will be a day in future when players in the industry will look back and say, we have done it.Even the South African entertainment industry faced the same struggle for decades under the apartheid regime. To date, players in the industry are still complaining that they have not achieved their goal.

However, our issue is not the struggle that the film companies are facing, but some unscrupulous characters who are taking advantage of talented but desperate young people out to get exposure.Most of these are unemployed youth fresh from high school, university or those who have been looking for jobs for years.Some of the companies make the aspiring actors pay for auditions whose results they never know. For instance, they are made to pay for auditions for music shows, or acting, and they come in huge numbers to try their luck. Along the way, these companies make huge sums of money from struggling young people most of whom cannot make ends meet.

The companies do not account for the sums they get and there have been allegations of sexual exploitation. It is high time those mandated with policing the industry do something to prevent the unfair exploitation of our youth by the unscrupulous.This is tantamount to fraud.These companies should undergo serious scrutiny and approval by District Commissioners, just as is the case with churches and other organisations wishing to raise funds from the public.

Apparently any person can go around claiming to be conducting auditions for modelling agencies, film production or music without proof that what they are doing is genuine. And this has resulted in criminal activities.The Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture, which in our view is the responsible authority, should come up with guidelines on these auditions before the situation gets out of hand. We live in the era of human trafficking and all sorts of crimes that should be nipped in the bud.

We appeal to the youth to be careful when dealing with these people.They should always ask for  formal written communication on the authenticity of the prospective film, or music producers, as well as modelling agencies to mention but a few.

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