‘I paid out of my pocket to save an actor’s life’

Generations producer Mfundi Vundla says that he feels betrayed by the fired actors as they have been painting him as an exploiter.
Vundla said that he has played a major role in some of the actor’s lives and that their behaviour does not make sense to him.
“To some extent I do feel betrayed, because one actor almost had a stroke and ended up at a private clinic with a blood clot in his brain, he had no medical insurance.
“I paid out of my back pocket for this actor. He is alive today. I played a role in saving his life,” explained an emotional Vundla at a press conference in Auckland Park.

This comes after 16 main actors of the most watched local soap were fired for staging a protest and demanding an increase and royalties for repeated viewing of the show among other things.

Vundla said: “I feel betrayed that I’m being painted as an exploiter. There are other things that we have done for these actors, above and beyond the call of duty so to be painted like I’m this avaricious person who doesn’t care is not in accordance with the facts.”

The production company for Generations revealed that on average, a permanent actor gets around R55 000 per month and that their R100 000 per month demand was not applicable.

SABC COO Hlaudi Motsoeneng told reporters that the doors are not permanently shut and they are still willing to negotiate with the fired actors.
“The actors are supposed to follow proper processes and solve issues while continuing to work, and not hold the broadcaster and MMSV to ransom,” Motsoeneng said.

He however mentioned that there are a lot of actors who are eagerly waiting to gain from the fired actors’ ruins. “Other great actors have approached me saying they want to come to Generations,” said SABC CEO Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

“People are waiting,” he added. – Sowetan.