South African musicians have banded together to create a song calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa not to sign the Copyright Amendment Bill into law. It was tabled by the Department of Trade and Industry, with the National Council of Provinces voting to pass the bill in Parliament on 28 March 2019.

The song is called Vikela Mina (protect me in IsiZulu), and is a play on the Hugh Masekela song, Thuma Mina, which the African National Congress (ANC) and Ramaphosa adopted as their campaign slogan for the upcoming elections. It features artists such as The Soil, Jimmy Nevis, Vicky Sampson, Arno Carstens and Zolani Mahola of Freshly Ground.

The artists say they want the bill to be sent back to Parliament for critical review as there are sections of it which are too broad, leaving room for possible exploitation.

The song is the brainchild of acclaimed South African music producer, Gabi Le Roux, of Nkalakatha fame.

“As musicians and composers, we are opposing certain sections of the bill, notably the overly broad exceptions that will apply through the adoption of ‘fair use’. Essentially this means that anyone can use our work, without compensating us, and claim that it was ‘fair use’ which is very poorly defined. The responsibility falls to the artist to challenge that use in court, which we all know is extremely costly” said Le Roux.

One change which has been welcomed as a positive amendment is the “right to own” clause, which removes the apartheid-era standard which previously made the commissioner of a work the default owner.

This change is most important for film-makers and photographers. These artists will no longer be barred from re-using their own work in other projects should they wish to do so.

Collen Dlamini of the Coalition for Effective Copyright in South Africa told Daily Maverick that they reject the bill in its current form as it is unconstitutional.

“The bill has unintended consequences even though it has good intentions. We want it to be redrafted,” said Dlamini.

He also bemoaned the lack of consultation by government with artists prior to the bill being drafted, saying that there needs to proper consultation and that the redrafted bill “should be more transformative”.

Vikela Minais the latest in a stream of public appeals to the President to not sign the bill into law. These include a protest march in Cape Town, which some of the artists in the new song participated in, culminating in them handing over a memorandum of demands to Deputy Finance Minister Mondli Gungubele.

Earlier this month Daily Maverick reported that artists feel under-represented by the Department of Arts and Culture, and that their interests were not being adequately looked out for in Parliament.

In an open letter and petition to President Ramaphosa, they asked for the first post-election Cabinet reshuffle to include “a credible new Arts and Culture Minister from civil society who is respected by the arts community”.

Arno Carstens, of Springbok Nude Girls fame, echoed the above sentiments, bemoaning the bill and saying that the government isn’t looking out for the best interests of South African artists in already tense economic climate where people think twice about paying for entertainment.

“Did they actually read this thing after drafting it? We are already struggling as artists, don’t make it even more difficult for us,” said Carstens speaking to Daily Maverick

Dlamini said there is a music video in the works for the song, which should be released some time next week. DM