Soapie lovers will be glad to know that some of their favourite telenovelas will be on set shooting some new scenes.
But they will have to adjust to the new normal following the lockdown level four rules, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Production across all major soapies: The River, Uzalo, The Queen, Imbewu, Isibaya, and Muvhango and Skeem Saam, etc, were halted at the start of lockdown in March, to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
Television production companies have now been given the green-light to start working and are expected to resume shooting from this week. This after, the department of communications and digital technologies acting minister, Jackson Mthembu, signed and gazetted directions on the Risk-Adjusted Strategy for the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector.
The cast and crew of Skeem Saam already kicked off their shooting process on Monday at the Sasani Studios in Johannesburg.
The gazetted directions allow, among others, electronic communication services and network services, advertising agencies, film and television production companies to resume operations.
These directions apply in addition to the existing restrictions and rules, that are in place across all sectors and alert levels including COVID-19 health protocols and sanitation requirements.
“Broadcasting services, online services, productions for local broadcast and live streaming, advertising agencies, film and television productions using local cast and crew are permitted to operate under alert level 4,” said Mthembu in a statement.
“The directions further include a monitoring and compliance approach that will be followed by sector regulators, industry representative bodies and through the department’s COVID-19 Project Management Office. The directions came into effect on 02 May 2020,” said Mthembu.
