Pretoria - Mental health issues were the centre of discussion during the recent launch of the Silapha Wellness Intervention Programme at Freedom Park.
The programme is designed to provide access to resources within the value chain services of lifestyle, mental health, substance, financial and legal management to practitioners in the sports, arts and culture industries.
Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Nathi Mthethwa, who launched the programme, said with many sports and creative workers having no access to employee benefits, this exacerbated the incidents of deteriorating mental wellness.
“The fact is, most of them are faced with daily challenges and psychological difficulties. Practitioners' struggles and pain are treated as entertainment to the public by social media and, at times – the mainstream media,” he said. “Their struggles make it to trends lists on platforms like Twitter and Facebook, and that leads to many artists being publicly embarrassed and humiliated. This is in addition to the global pandemic that has stifled the creative sector’s economic potential.
“Many behind the scenes, such as producers and stage technicians, always just disappear without anyone knowing what happened to them."
Mthethwa said the department was compelled to address these concerns by developing and identifying programmatic interventions which could redress these sector challenges.
Participant Boitumelo Mainganyi said: “Whenever we get a chance, among our small circles as men, we discuss the issue of gender-based violence because we want to change the mindset and behaviour in terms of how men are supposed to treat, love, protect and respect women.
“We want to address issues from the point of view of men. We need us (men) to change our behaviour. We need men to speak about the things that they are going through.”
Mainganyi said he spoke from experience because his mother was a victim of gender-based violence.
“The piece I shared on gender-based violence it is actually a real-life situation poem I wrote for my mother. She is a survivor of gender-based violence.
“That is what triggered me to be a different generation from my father. I want to be a different breed from the men I grew up watching.
“I asked myself, how am I going to be different? It was that I do not want to do the same things those men did that were supposed to be my mentors did.”
Kwena Manamela said that Silapha had partnered with various stakeholders to address these issues faced within the industry.
"Statistics are amplifying that suicide is part of the challenges that we are dealing with, but what causes this? The statistics show how mental issues could be as a result of stress, depression, relationship problems and substance abuse. Some of us are resorting to drugs to cope.
“Suicide is not the solution. We are here to listen and learn from one another. Let’s heal together.”
Leading actress Connie Chiume said the industry had lost upcoming artists. She called the department to intervene.
“My heart is broken that we are losing artists. Young and upcoming artists are being buried because of peer pressure, personal problems and other issues,” she said.
“As artists, we also need to take responsibility for ourselves: you get paid R500 000, then post that you bought a R3 000 whiskey, and then the next thing, you are broke.
“You have put yourself under pressure, that's why I'm saying, irrespective of the challenges we have as artists, let's take responsibility.”
Chiume said they were in an exploitative industry, and a lot of times they were told that they were not united – and that had to stop.
Pretoria News