“My Brother’s Keeper”: Unpaid Actors Demand Payment

Filming on the local drama series, “My Brother’s Keeper”, has reportedly halted due to background actors being unpaid.

Speaking to a local entertainment outlet on Thursday, 6 February, two of these actors – who preferred to remain anonymous – claimed that the show’s producers still owed them salaries dating back to last December and January this year.

“We’re working as background actors and we haven’t been paid since December last year,” one of the actors explained. “And we are aggrieved because they keep calling us, yet they don’t want to pay us.”

More than 50 background actors were allegedly not compensated for their work on the show. In response, they staged a sit-in protest on Monday, 3 February. While this action resulted in the payment of their December salaries, they are still awaiting compensation for January.

“This drama series will not be shot until we get all our money,” the second actor stated. “We want what is ours.”

When asked to comment on this situation, Kelly Nyathi – the casting co-ordinator for “My Brother’s Keeper” – downplayed the drama.

“I was on set [on Monday] and we didn’t use background actors,” she explained. “There were no disruptions; everything was going smoothly as usual. On Tuesday [4 February] and Wednesday [5 February], we were shooting, and we used background actors. We had no issues; I don’t know where this is coming from.”

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