MANY FOLLOWERS, FEW LEADERS
THE SOUTH AFRICAN CREATIVE INDUSTRY'S BIGGEST CRISIS
By Thami aka Mbongo Manzana
Truth be told, the Cultural and Creative Industries in South Africa are suffering from a leadership crisis.
We have more followers than leaders.
We have more social media activists than industry builders.
We have more keyboard heroes than policy warriors.
Every day artists flood Facebook, X, TikTok and WhatsApp groups with complaints, insults and gossip. Yet when it is time to confront the structural problems that have crippled the sector since 1994, the room suddenly becomes empty.
The uncomfortable truth is that the South African Cultural and Creative Industries remain largely unregulated and fragmented.
Despite numerous policy interventions, funding agencies, strategic plans and consultations over the years, artists continue to experience many of the same challenges: unequal access to opportunities, funding disputes, gatekeeping, weak accountability and political patronage.
Since 1994, successive political administrations under both the African National Congress and IFP governance have presided over an industry that many practitioners believe remains structurally broken. Yet throughout these decades there has never been a shortage of praise singers.
Every Minister has had defenders.
Every system has had protectors.
Every failure has had spokespersons.
Whenever artists raise concerns about corruption, favouritism, exclusion or poor governance, there is always a group ready to defend the status quo. Not because the system works, but because they have found a way to survive within it.
The arrival of Minister Gayton McKenzie did not create the crisis.
He inherited a mess.
A sector already drowning in mistrust, fragmentation and dependency.
The problem is that when a rotten system remains unchanged, it simply changes its beneficiaries.
Yesterday's beneficiaries were politically connected to one centre of power.
Today's beneficiaries may be politically connected to another.
The faces change.
The networks change.
The slogans change.
But the culture remains the same.
That is why reducing the debate to one individual or one political party misses the point entirely.
Gayton McKenzie will eventually leave office.
The next Minister will arrive.
And if the foundations remain unchanged, the same complaints will continue.
The same battles will continue.
The same exclusions will continue.
The same outrage cycles will continue.
Meanwhile, artists on the ground continue fighting over crumbs.
They fight over festival bookings.
They fight over funding allocations.
They fight over social media recognition.
They fight over who was invited and who was excluded.
Instead of challenging the machinery that produces scarcity, they attack fellow artists who are equally trapped inside it.
That is perhaps the greatest victory of a broken system: convincing victims to fight one another rather than confront the structure itself.
Those who challenge the system are often labelled troublemakers.
They are called bitter.
They are called divisive.
They are called attention seekers.
Yet history teaches us that every meaningful reform was first demanded by people who were unpopular for speaking uncomfortable truths.
The South African creative sector does not need more influencers.
It does not need more praise singers.
It does not need more politically connected celebrities pretending to represent artists.
It needs courageous leadership.
It needs independent voices.
It needs transparent governance.
It needs accountability.
Most importantly, it needs regulation that protects practitioners, professionalises the sector and creates clear standards for governance, funding and representation.
Until that happens, we will continue moving in circles.
A new Minister will come.
A new administration will come.
New beneficiaries will emerge.
New slogans will be printed.
New promises will be made.
But the same frustrations will remain.
The circle will continue.
Until artists stop fighting over crumbs and start demanding a table.
Until the industry stops celebrating access to power and starts demanding systemic reform.
Until the Cultural and Creative Industries are properly regulated.
That is the conversation South Africa keeps avoiding.
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