SA: SAMRO calls for end of female exploitation

The call comes as South Africa celebrates Women's Day on 9 August. The day is recognised as an official public holiday in the country.

“Women’s month this year must go beyond symbolic gestures and achieve something tangible for women in the creative music industry,” SAMRO board chairperson Nicholas Maweni said.

“While women have been acknowledged as great interpreters of music, the field of composition is still unfortunately dominated by men. We all enjoy music sung by female artists. However, often the songs sung by women are said to have been written or composed by men.”

SAMRO, which is Africa's oldest music rights organisation, says less than 20% of its members are women who earn about 5% of the total royalties that are paid out.

Maweni said it was highly probable that over the years men have registered works created by women as their own. As a result, they continue to reap the financial benefits from the works of women.

“We know very little about these women, as there is little shared or published about them,” he said. “Women continue to lag for various reasons including patriarchy: their work is not properly recognised as being on par with the works created by men. This is primarily because the gatekeepers in the industry continue to be predominantly men. Sixty-four years after the women’s protest against passes on 9 August 1956, they are still fighting for their emancipation.”

SAMRO is calling for the following:

• An end to patriarchy in the music industry across the entire value chain.
• Women to move up the ladder and occupy more meaningful position in the music industry.
• Women must approach SAMRO if they have clear and valid evidence to re-register their music.
• All broadcasters must play music composed or performed by women during Women’s Month.

“We need more women composers and it's not about tokenism, it's about talent,” Maweni said. "SAMRO has 33% women representation, who are non-executive directors and more than 50% of total permanent employees are women, and will continue to lead by example in the fight for gender parity in terms of representation and equal pay."