Pamela Nomvete evicted from apartment in Mauritius

Legendary South African actress Pamela Nomvete says she is dismayed by treatment of talent on the set of new show in Mauritius — thanks to chaos  mismanagement by the producers of the new series set to air on SABC1.

As I reported via Twitter, a new show called Agent is currently in being shot in Mauritius starring a host of local actors led by Pamela Nomvete and Kay Sibiya. The show's production has been on location on the island since October and is set to premiere on SABC1 soon.

Judging by the news coming from the exotic island, the actors on the set are certainly not having the paradise experience. From reports of delayed salary payment to ill-treatment from the producers and runners of the show.

In my conversation with Pamela Nomvete, she relayed an incident that has led her to say "I've had it". According to Nomvete, she was abruptly given a 24 hour notice and subsequently evicted from an apartment she was allocated for her stay on the island because the lease had run out. She, however, suspects that the issue was payment as the staff on the building had been complaining about payment from the production.

Subsequent to her removal from the said apartment, Ms Nomvete says she was taken to a hotel but was annoyed to be told later that on her last days in Mauritius — she is returning to South Africa on Friday, she would have to move from the hotel into another apartment where she would have to share with a man. To that, she said she vehemently refused and came to a breaking point.

"I said I will not be moved. The disrespect is too much. I am not a difficult person and it takes a lot to get me to that line of saying I have had it, but I had had it by this point."

"I am Pamela, some people consider me a legend ... and I hate to have to even say these words because that is not what I am about, but imagine ... if I am Pamela, who has done this and that in this business, and I am being treated this way, imagine what is happening with other actors coming up in this business"

"They [the production company] clearly think they are doing us a favor. The way they are treating us is unacceptable"

Ms Nomvete shared few incidents of the ill treatment and mismanagement on this set.

One striking issue is scheduling problems and being summoned on a whim to be on set. She says when she was meant to return to Mauritius for the second leg of her shoot, she had a play to rehearse at the mArket Theatre. Due to the production's lack of proper planning she was asked to return to the island abruptly which meant she had to miss the last days of her play rehearsal but when she got to Mauritius she had nothing to do for 2 days.

Though Ms Nomvete is clearly annoyed by the situation around this production, she was at pains to point out that we have the capacity to demand that production companies be held accountable and investigated for their competence before being allocated contracts.

She also pointed out that with her work on Black Brain Productions' show Lockdown, she was very happy with the professionalism and treatment they all got on set.

Ms Nomvete says "Some of these production companies think we are the help. They think we should just be grateful that we have a job. Things have to change."


My thoughts: 

I hate that in 2018 I still have to report on such issues. When will this end? When will we get to a point where our talent does not have to feel abused and exploited.

Thing is, I know what it takes for an artist to finally speak up about problems. `The landscape is not conducive for such engagement in South Africa, so when someone get to this point then they must truly have had it.

I have engaged the SABC on this since the production claims the show will be on their channel and will post their reaction once I get it.