Drama at the now canned etv telanovela Nikiwe continues with crew members also coming out to say they were also not paid. This comes after actors were not paid their December salaries and only received R400 each from Parental Advisory Productions, co-owned by business partners Lungelo Radu and Thomas Gumede.

Crew members who spoke to Zimoja on condition of anonymity said the past four months have been hell for them. The crew members say they feel like they failed their families as men. "We have failed our families because they had bleak Christmas. Instead of getting our full salaries, the production house paid us as little as R2 000 while others received R4 000. Imagine being used to a salary of around R60 000 and receiving less than 10% of what's due to you. Most of us are fathers and husbands. We could not pay our bonds, rents, school fees and on top of that, they are not taking our calls," one insider said. Adding insult to injury, it has been reported that Radu and his associate Thomas have allegedly locked their crew members' equipment at their studios, leaving them unable to work and earn a living. "Now we can't even work because our equipment is locked at the premises, we don't have access and they don't take our calls.We don't know who to turn to," another crew member said.

The crew is also pleading for any lawyer who can help them with their case as they will be grateful. "We need all the help we can get. We need someone who can assist us to reach out to these boys because we want just to want what rightfully belongs to us," The situation has left many in the industry outraged, with some calling for greater regulation and oversight to prevent such incidents from happening again. Last week, e-tv confirmed to ZiMoja that they paid the production the money that was due to them. When called for comment, Thomas Gumede picked the call and immediately hung up after failing to respond to our texts. Lungelo plan ignored our calls.