Improved protection for SA actors

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The Performers’ Protection Amendment Bill and the Copyright Amendment Bill are aimed at modernising existing legislation and aligning it with international treaties that South Africa intends to ratify. The bills also address unfair contracting between creators or performers and copyright owners.

“Many creators and performers had not benefitted effectively from their work and had died in poverty. The committee made technical changes to these two bills,” said Mothapo.

Regarding the comprehensive National Gambling Bill, which the Minister of Trade and Industry introduced, the committee resolved to deal with three technical issues only.

“This was aimed at speedily addressing existing governance challenges. The three issues which the committee identified were the reconfiguration of the National Gambling Board to the National Gambling Regulator, addressing governance challenges relating to the National Gambling Policy Council and broadening the National Central Electronic Monitoring System,” Mothapo said.

In terms of the Rules of Parliament, the committee could approve, reject, amend or redraft any legislation before it.

Last month, the Portfolio Committee on Trade and Industry has adopted reports on the Copyright Amendment Bill and the Performers Protection Amendment Bill, which seek to establish and protect the rights of creators and copyright owners.

The Copyright Amendment Bill introduces a resale royalty right for the resale of original visual artistic works such as sculptures and paintings, as permitted under the Berne Convention.

It also provides for a sharing of royalties between creators and copyright owners or licensed users for commercial acts protected by the legislation for literary, musical and visual artistic works and between performers and copyright owners for audio-visual works.