A long road to recognition

On 23 January 2026, Minister of Employment and Labour Nomakhosazana Meth announced her intention to elevate the legal status of cultural and creative workers to enable them to get benefits usually afforded to permanent employees. This is seen as a tipping point for the diverse group of about 7% of national employment that constitutes the sector. “Over the past three years, we’ve seen different ministers, officials have changed and there have been new directors general,” says Gabi le Roux, the founding general secretary of the Trade Union for Musicians of South Africa (Tumsa).

“We came across the same obstacle every time; that the LRA had a specific definition for people like us. I nearly fell off my chair when the announcement was made. Cosatu was also overjoyed.” Once submissions have been reviewed, the minister will determine whether workers in the sector can be deemed employees.

Based on an interlinked investigation into the sector by the National Minimum Wage Commission, the minister might decide to publish a sectoral determination for the sector. An announcement is possible by the end of March, the Acting Deputy Director General of Labour Policy and Industrial Relations Thembinkosi Mkalipi says. For the South African Guild of Actors (Saga) the idea that performers can be protected through a sectoral determination is not new.Sectoral Determination 10was introduced to regulate the employment of children in performances decades ago.

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Saga suggests that for adult performers sectoral determination should consider: Ultimately, the Labour Relations Act, the Basic Conditions of Employment Act, the Minimum Wage Act and the Compensation Act should be amended. “With all these laws, it’s like raising children,” says Cosatu parliamentary coordinator Matthew Parks. “From pregnancy to the birth, to taking them to crèche, to primary school, it takes at least five years from the bureaucrat’s desk in Pretoria, through public comments, parliament, presidency, cabinet and back to the bureaucrat’s desk.” Together with Tumsa, Saga and others, Cosatu began to fathom the complex world of technical workers and performers who fell through the cracks during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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