A hashtag has emerged on social media — #ThatsNotOkay — to address the sexual abuse that women in the film and television industry face on a daily basis.
Many have rallied to the call following allegations against film-maker Khalo Matabane, who has been accused of sexually assaulting women.
Pledge... #ThatsNotOkpic.twitter.com/4MjhkUNZmP
— Mme a Masakona (@FloMasebe) April 30, 2018
Sisters Working in Film and Television [SWIFT]'s head of skills and mentorship, cinematographer Natalie Haarhoff, said power dynamics matter in the film industry.
"At SWIFT we are aware that there are powerful role players in the industry who have gotten away with gross sexual misconduct. To date, we are not aware of any successful cases with a positive outcome for the victims," Haarhoff said.
She says most women in the industry do not speak out against people in power because they might not get jobs — and this is why South Africans cannot compare #ThatsNotOkay with the #MeToo movement in the U.S.
"Power is a very real aspect as to why people are protected, and why they get away with this kind of misconduct — I think we must be careful to compare ourselves with Hollywood, because all the women who came out are essentially dollar millionaires," she told HuffPost.
"At the moment, the women who are being assaulted do not have the keys to power. We have to find ways and be smart in how we support them," she added.
SWIFT does, however, believe that women and even men should speak up for their rights.
"We do believe it is time right now — we need to support these women. With #ThatsNotOkay, we want to tackle the grey areas of sexual misconduct."
Haarhoff has been in the film and television world for 18 years and attests to the fact that woman have always had to play second fiddle to men in the industry.
Introducing legislation
SWIFT held a poll to determine the extent of sexual misconduct in the industry, and the results were "shocking".
"We decided to put up an anonymous last year, for a couple of months — and the results were shocking even to us. Women do not feel comfortable in the workplace," she said.
SWIFT is planning to use the results of the poll to tackle these issues head on.
"Ideally what we want to do, is get into legislation a code of conduct that people who work on crews — whether they are cast or crew, they have to pretty much sign and commit to this code of conduct."
Haarhoff said the legislation will be as basic as stating: "I will not sexually harass a woman. I will not speak badly to someone, I will not make suggestive comments..."
We at SWIFT realise that for rape culture to change, we have to get men on board to help change it.
"When you think about it, it is very scary — because in our industry, that has never been in our contracts. We have never said: 'If you touch a woman in this way, you will fired' — and that is our drive at SWIFT at the moment," the cinematographer said.
SWIFT is also planning to draft a code of conduct that will be part of big productions through broadcasters.
The organisation also wants more men to be involved in preventing sexual abuse in the industry. So far, journalist and social commentator Charl Blignaut has been one of their staunchist supporters.
"We at SWIFT realise that for rape culture to change, we have to get men on board to help change it. We are very aware of not excluding men — of including men — and we do have some very supportive people within the industry."