Clarification Statement from the Cape Film Commiion

3 February, 2016 - 14:05

Dear Members, I've been put under pressure by many of you to make a clarification statement after some of the recent comments that have been made to the press by politicians concerning the CFC. This newsletter is not intended to be political, far from it. I am addressing the facts as we see them. I am sending this newsletter Without Prejudice as it is intended to be a personal explanation of the situation.

Firstly, I really want to thank the many hundreds of you from across South Africa and around the world who phoned me and sent emails over the weekend expressing your sadness, gratitude and support. It was really gratifying to hear that the assistance we have given so many of you over the years has helped in the development of your careers and your filmmaking. The messages have been touching, encouraging and much appreciated. Thank you!

CITY OF CAPE TOWN HANDS OVER FILM DEVELOPMENT TO CITY COUNCIL

In an article in the Cape Argus yesterday (http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/cape-film-commission... ), Councillor Garreth Bloor from the City of Cape Town was quoted as follows:

A report was tabled at city council on May 29 and 30, 2013, where council authorised the termination of both the CFC's mandate and funding.

This included the return of the film development and marketing function to the city council's tourism, events and economic development directorate. Bloor added that the city council has signed an agreement with Wesgro to promote Cape Town and the Western Cape for local and international filming.

Although, we understand that a report was tabled at the council meeting in May 2013, we have not seen that report, we were not consulted on it and I suspect, neither was industry or our membership.

1. We were not given the opportunity to table our views or present to the council or portfolio committee on any decision that may have been made against that report.

2. We were not officially advised that the reports' recommendations were to be implemented until September, some 4 months later, which was practically at the end of the first quarter of the financial year when the funding was due to us.

Councilor Bloor is further quoted as having stated that council authorised the termination of the CFCs' mandate and that this included the return of the film development and marketing function to the city. We have previously requested clarity from the City as to how something can be returned to somewhere it has never been.

The tourism, events and economic development directorate did not exist 12 months before the report was tabled, so it would have been impossible to return it there anyway as it was never there in the first place, this function has never sat with the City. The City is unable to terminate our mandate as we are an independent Not for Profit Company.

FILM DEVELOPMENT AND MARKETING WAS DEVELOPED BY THE CFC FOR THE WHOLE REGION

The film development and marketing function was developed by the Cape Film Commission and was for the region, not just Cape Town. We are unsure how that can be returned to the City when it included marketing and promotion for locations outside of the City of Cape Town borders.

This brings into question what authority the City of Cape Town has to sign an agreement with Wesgro to promote Cape Town and the Western Cape for local and international filming .

We are the Cape Film Commission and as such promote the Western Cape for filming. We still have signed agreements to promote Stellenbosch, Knysna, George and other municipalities and districts together with the Northern Cape. It appears as if the City of Cape Town has exceeded its boundaries of authority.

In essence, the City of Cape Town approved a report that wanted to return the film development and marketing function back to the City and then reneged on its' own agreement by then signing the function over to Wesgro.

Would it not have been less complex and more efficient to sit with the Cape Film Commission CEO and have a formal discussion about the future of the CFC and how we could help the industry through support and investment by possibly handing over certain functions to Wesgro or work with them rather than putting the CFC and its work at risk in the manner they did by withdrawing our funding at such a critical time?

This would have saved many months/years of legal fees, costs for officials and the cost for CFC representatives time. The inherent delay is understandable to an extent since some of the decisions were made by City political and functional heads who are no longer with the organisation.

We have recently requested separate meetings with the Executive Mayor and the Deputy Mayor to highlight our current situation. They both declined to meet and referred us to the Citys' appointed attorney who, as recently as last week has also declined to meet with us. The result of this is that we have been unable to reach any closure on the matter which has resulted in us being unable to accept over R10m of project funding from another government agency which would have assisted in supporting us for a further year. This led to our decision to close our doors last week.

PROVINCIAL SUPPORT

I would now like to address recent statements made by MEC Winde of the Western Cape Government. In a radio interview on Cape Talk yesterday morning (please refer to their website for the podcast) the MEC referred to a 3 month process that they had gone through before the decision was made to terminate the Provincial funding to the CFC.

I would like to clarify this statement from our perspective.

We were not made aware that this process was taking place, we were not consulted. We were advised in October 2011 that there was a preliminary approval of funds for us and then we were advised in late March 2012 that the funding w

LINK:	http://www.filmcontact.com/news/south-africa/clarification-statement-c...
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