Johannesburg - Safety and health concerns have been raised during filming after popular telenovela The River had to halt production when a crew member tested positive for coronavirus.
M-Net announced in a statement that a crew member of The River had tested positive for the killer pandemic on Tuesday morning.
The production house behind the SA Film and Television Awards (Safta) Award-winning show, Tshedza Pictures halted shooting and all the cast and crew were asked to self-isolate while the necessary health protocols were being implemented.
“Ever since we resumed production on 1 May 2020, all the necessary lockdown health guidelines were implemented on set. After we received the news of the colleague testing positive, we immediately asked the cast and crew that came into contact with the member to go into self-isolation,” Phathu Makwarela of Tshedza Pictures said.
M-Net channel director for local entertainment channels Nomsa Philiso said M-Net had contacted the production team in order to assure them of their support.
The River closed its doors for the set to be decontaminated and urged members of the public to afford the cast and crew space to deal with the situation.
SA Guild of Actors (SAGA) chairperson and former Isidingo actor Jack Devnarain told The Star yesterday that although the circumstances around how the crew member contracted the virus were unknown, the matter needed to be investigated.
“There are lessons to be learned for all other productions because the last thing we want is for vulnerable cast and crew who have just returned back to work and are now finally earning some sort of income for the opportunity to be shut down again because the production can’t continue because of the risk of infection,” he said.
Devnarain added that productions that were currently operating need to use this “as an example that nobody can afford not to comply with the safety regulations that we have adopted in our industry”.
Meanwhile, other production houses have emphasised that the health and safety of their crews and cast were their number one priority.
Word of Mouth Productions, the production house for the long-running SABC3 soapie Muvhango, said an ongoing new filming protocol was designed and implemented.
“The cast is safely on set, with the emergence of the coronavirus pandemic, creative industries like ours need to adapt, adjust, and work within the confines of the new normal. No contact or limited contact is part and parcel of this new normal,” Thanduxolo Jindela of Kwathole Conexion said on the behalf of Word of Mouth.
He added that the new filming protocol in place did not compromise the production aesthetics,
“In addition, our cast and crew have now operated under self-catering measures during the Covid-19 duration as to afford the new normal,” he said.
Acting SABC spokesperson Mmoni Seapolelo confirmed that there were no positive cases reported for the productions working with the SABC and added that in an instance where a case is reported, all necessary precautionary measures will be followed.
“The SABC is firmly committed to adhering to and delivering diligently on its mandate of providing an essential service of broadcasting to millions of South Africans,” she said.
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