Cape Town Film Studios

Anant Singh is recognised as South Africa's pre-eminent film producer, having produced 65 films since 1984. He is responsible for many of the greatest anti-apartheid films made in South Africa, including Place Of Weeping, Sarafina! and Cry, the Beloved Country. Nelson Mandela called him "a producer I respect very much ... a man of tremendous ability" when he granted him the film rights to his autobiography, Long Walk To Freedom. Singh is set to film Long Walk to Freedom next year.

Singh is the producer of Yesterday (from director, Darrell James Roodt), which received South Africa's first Academy Award Nomination in the Best Foreign Language Picture category in 2005, the Peabody Award and an Emmy Nomination in 2006 in the "Outstanding Made For Television Movie" category.

Born and raised in Durban, Singh began his film career at age 18 when he left his studies at the University of Durban-Westville to purchase a 16mm movie rental store. From there, he moved into video distribution, forming Videovision Entertainment). He moved into film production in 1984 with Darrell James Roodt's acclaimed Place of Weeping, the first anti-apartheid film to be made entirely in South Africa.

A selection of his subsequent feature films includes: Sarafina! with Whoopi Goldberg, Leleti Khumalo and Miriam Makeba; The Road to Mecca, with Kathy Bates; Father Hood, with Patrick Swayze and Halle Berry; Captives, with Julia Ormond and Tim Roth; Tobe Hooper's The Mangler, with Robert Englund and based on a Stephen King short story; Cry, the Beloved Country, from Alan Paton's revered novel, with James Earl Jones and Richard Harris; Paljas (shot in Afrikaans, the first South African film to be selected for Oscar Consideration in the Best Foreign Language film category); Face, with Robert Carlyle; The Theory of Flight, with Kenneth Branagh and Helena Bonham Carter; Bravo Two Zero, with Sean Bean; The Long Run, with Armin Mueller-Stahl; Tsui Hark's remake of The Legend of Zu, with Zhang Ziyi; I Capture the Castle, with Tara Fitzgerald and Henry Thomas and Red Dust, with Hilary Swank and Chiwetel Ejiofor, a drama centering on South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Directly after the completion of Yesterday, Singh once again teamed up with director, Darrell James Roodt to produce Faith's Corner which starred Leleti Khumalo and scored by multi-award winner Philip Glass. Following this was the stylish Cape Flats gangster film, Dollars And White Pipes directed by Donovan Marsh and which won the Best Director prize at the Pan African Film Festival in Los Angeles in 2006.

Singh's association with South Africa's Number One Box office star, Leon Schuster, saw the production of the hit comedy Mr Bones is the second highest grossing South African film of all time, earning more than R33 million at the boxoffice. Following Mr Bones was Mama Jack a further collaboration with Leon Schuster which was the top performing South African film of 2005, grossing more than R28 million. The follow-up to Mr Bones, Mr Bones 2: Back From The Past was released on 27 November 2008 in South Africa and is now the Highest Grossing South African Film of All Time, earning more than R34 million.

Prey, also produced by Singh, is directed by Darrell James Roodt and co-written by Roodt and the writers of Cry Wolf, Beau Bauman and Jeff Wadlow. The film stars Peter Weller of RoboCop fame, Bridget Moynahan (I, Robot, The Sum Of All Fears, The Recruit) and Carly Schroeder (Firewall, Mean Creek).

Singh's recent productions in the United States include the Dimension Films co-production, Pulse, a remake of the Kiyoshi Kurosawa Japanese horror film which stars Kirsten Bell, Ian Somerhalder, Christina Milian and Rick Gonzalez. The film is directed by Jim Sonzero and is written by Wes Craven and Ray Wright; the Arab-American drama American East starring, Tony Shalhoub (the Emmy-winning star of the hit series Monk), Kais Nashef, lead actor in the international hit and Oscar-nominated Palestinian film, Paradise Now and Egyptian-American actor Sayed Badreya who co-wrote the script with director Hesham Issawi. Recently completed in the US, is the re-make of Hideo Nakata's Don't Look Up starring Henry Thomas (I Capture The Castle, Gangs Of New York), Kevin Corrigan (Departed, American Gangster), Lothaire Bluteau (Black Robe, Jesus of Montreal), Carmen Chaplin (All About the Benjamins) and Reshad Strik (Hills Have Eyes 2).

Released on 25 April 2008 in South Africa is More Than Just A Game, the moving docu-drama feature which tells the inspiring story of organised soccer among prisoners on Robben Island (the maximum security prison where Nelson Mandela and other political prisoners were incarcerated by the apartheid regime in South Africa).

Anant Singh has also been involved in the production of many important documentaries, including Countdown to Freedom, about the first free election in South Africa, Prisoners of Hope, about a reunion on Robben Island of 1250 of its former political prisoners led by Nelson Mandela, Hero For All which documents Nelson Mandela's farewell visit to the United States as he stepped down from the South African Presidency. Viva Madiba: A Hero For All Seasons was produced as a 90th Birthday tribute to Nelson Mandela in July 2008. He scored a major coup by scooping major media organisations with the timely production of Obama: People's President, a documentary feature that explores the unique and innovative US presidential campaign mounted by Barack Obama.

Singh is a board member of the International Marketing Council Of South Africa, the Los Angeles-based Artists For A New South Africa and the Mandela 46664 Concert with Richard Branson, Dave Stewart and Jim Beach. He is also the only South African member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and was appointed by President Thabo Mbeki to the Creative Collective, the body responsible for the organization of South Africa's Ten Years Of Freedom Celebrations in 2004.

He is also Chairman of the Cape Town Film Studios which is currently under construction and is scheduled to open at the end of 2009. Singh's expertise in media and entertainment saw him being appointed to the Board of Governors for Media and Entertainment of the World Economic Forum.

Singh is a recipient of the Crystal Award of the World Economic Forum and the Lifetime Founder Member Award of the Nelson Mandela Children's Fund. Both the University of Durban-Westville and the University Of Port Elizabeth have conferred honorary doctorates on him.

Singh was also nominated for the 2006 Black Businessman Of The Year Award by the influential business magazine, Black Business Quarterly.

The 2007 Palm Beach International Film Festival conferred the World Visionary Award to Singh for his contribution to world cinema and his production of socially conscious films.

The South African Film Industry recognised Anant Singh for his significant contribution to the advancement of the industry with the Golden Horn Award for Outstanding Contributor at the inaugural South African Film And Television Awards in October 2006.

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For a full profile of Nico Dekker, please click here

HCI is a level 5 contributor to BBEEE. In 2007 HCI attained the maximum 20 points at ownership level but surpassed this in 2008 by receiving an extra 3 bonus points to top the financial mail 2008 Top Empowerment Companies ["TEC"] award at ownership level. HCI attained an overall third place in the 2008 TEC stakes.

Marcel holds a postgraduate degree from the University of Cape Town where he tutored and lectured before joining the National Union of Mineworkers in the mid-80s. He was elected the first Deputy-General Secretary of the Union in 1987 at the age of 26. During his tenure as a unionist he served on the Central Executive Committee of the Congress of SA Trade Unions since its inception, the SA Miners Federation Executive Committee, the Miners International Federation Executive Committee, and various other related committees. He has attended numerous international conferences and has delivered papers on mining, labour, economic and development matters.

From 1994 to 1997 he served as a Member of Parliament, where he chaired the Minerals and Energy Committee and the Audit Commission, the oversight committee of the Office of the Auditor-General. Whilst in Parliament he pioneered key health and safety legislation for the mining industry, as well as policy papers in both the mining and energy fields.

He resigned from Parliament to head, with Johnny Copelyn, the only trade union-controlled, listed company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange in 1997, the culmination of two years of work in the investment field for the trade union-linked investment companies of the miners and the clothing and textile unions.

Marcel has also been involved in a number of philanthropic, development and policy organisations as a trustee or director including the Mineworker Investment Trust, IDASA and the Minerals and Energy and Policy Centre.

Sudhir served as chairman of the KwaZulu Natal based East Coast Radio and also served as a director of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange listed company, Kagiso Media Ltd where he served on the Audit Committee and Remuneration Committee. He was also the chairman of the board of Radio Oranje in the Free State and was also director of M&G Media, the publishers of The Mail & Guardian newspaper.

Sudhir has a special affinity for the entertainment industry and left the accounting profession to join Anant Singh and the world of entertainment in 1988.

Among the films Sudhir has executive produced are Yesterday, the film which received South Africa's first-ever Oscar Nomination, the courtroom drama, Red Dust, the blockbuster comedies, Mr. Bones 1, Mr Bones 2 and Mama Jack; the inspirational docu-drama, More Than Just A Game; Cry, The Beloved Country based on Alan Paton's classic novel, the rousing Sarafina! and South Africa's first ever entry for Oscar consideration, Paljas while other notable productions include the international hit game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?, Countdown To Freedom, Will Smith In Africa, and the drama series The Res which is created by Franz Marx of Egoli fame and most recently Barack Obama: People's President which tells the amazing story of how America's first black President was elected focusing on his unprecedented grass roots campaign and innovative use of the Internet.

Sudhir is also active in the live entertainment ventures of Videovision Entertainment and oversaw the promotion of the Amitabh Bachchan stadium extravaganzas in South Africa in 1991, Gloria Estefan's and Michael Jackson's tour of South Africa in 1997 and the Now Or Never Live! Show which took place in Durban on December 28, 2002 and featured ten of Bollywood's top stars, including the legendary Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Sanjay Dutt, Karisma Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Sushmita Sen, Preity Zinta, Shilpa Shetty and Rani Mukherjee. Now Or Never Live! was one of the largest concerts ever in the history of Indian entertainment in the world.

Sudhir also plays an active role in film industry bodies and has served as treasurer on the South African Film and Television Institute and on the National Executive Committee of Independent Producer's Organisation.

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He is a chartered accountant and he joined e.tv, late 2002, as its Chief Financial Officer.

Sanjeev Singh has executive produced a number of motion pictures made under the banner of Videovision Entertainment, among which are More Than Just A Game, the Oscar Nominated, Yesterday; Red Dust; the hit comedies Mr Bones 1, Mr Bones 2 and Mama Jack; The Long Run and The Mangler and most recently, Barack Obama: People's President which tells the amazing story of how America's first black President was elected focusing on his unprecedented grass roots campaign and innovative use of the Internet. He was also associate producer on Bravo Two Zero, Sarafina!, Terminal Bliss and American Kickboxer.

His expertise in the film industry was recognised by former Minister of Arts & Culture, Dr Ben Ngubane with an appointment as a councillor of the National Film and Video Foundation.

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Presently Chief Commercial Officer of Sabido and Non-Executive Director of YFM and Cape Town Film Studios, he is responsible for the generation of Revenue and Trade Marketing.

His broadcasting career has evolved over a period of eighteen years, the start of which was a freelance radio presenter at Radio Lotus. He was appointed Station Manager at Radio Lotus and during his tenor the station was transformed into Lotus FM, making it more vibrant and relevant to the community it served.

After a successful stint at the radio station and as recognition of his marketing abilities which included an award for Emerging Marketer of the Year in KZN, he was promoted to Regional Manager of Radio Active for the SABC in the Western Cape. The core responsibility was to generate revenue for all the SABC radio stations, within a short space of time he was promoted to National Sales Manager in Johannesburg.

He then joined Multichoice SA as a National Sales Manager and was head-hunted by eTV which he joined in April 2002.

He is frequently requested to talk on broadcasting matters and is a regular guest lecturer at the Sol Plaatjies School of Media at Rhodes University.

He holds the following degrees. BA.  UHDE.  Bed.  MBA.  CM (SA).

After a very successful career at TISA, Angelo was head-hunted to join Saab Grintek Technologies. Part of his responsibilities was to draft and implement a turnaround strategy in the Enterprise Division, which included market share growth and increased revenue, optimizing business efficiencies, and enhance the BEE profile. Enterprise comprised of 101 employees with a budget of R120m. He later assumed an additional responsibility of Managing Director (Acting) of Syrinx Communications International, a 100% owned subsidiary of Saab Grintek. Angelo is currently the Chief Executive Office of the Western Cape Investment and Trade Promotion Agency.

Videovision Entertainment is a diversified company whose operations have grown from its core business of film and television production and distribution to film exhibition, live entertainment, property and film studio development.

The company is amongst the largest independent film production and distribution companies in South Africa.

Film Production
Videovision Entertainment has produced over 60 motion pictures since its founding 15 years ago. All the films produced by Videovision are distributed worldwide. The company has been responsible for bringing to the screen South Africa's major anti-apartheid films, some of them made during the apartheid era. They include: A Place of Weeping, The Stick, Sarafina! and Cry, the Beloved Country. In 1996, the company produced, Paljas which was accepted as South Africa's first official entry for Oscar consideration while Yesterday, the first Zulu Language film released internationally was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award in 2005.

The Long Run stars Oscar Nominee, Armin Mueller-Stahl opposite popular South African stars Nthati Moshesh and Desmond Dube. The music was composed by former Capetonian Trevor Jones (Notting Hill, Thirteen Days) and additional musical contributions were made by Ladysmith Black Mambazo, diva Sibongile Khumalo and Amampondo. The film was released in South Africa on July 20 and was acquired for worldwide distribution by Universal Focus, the speciality division of Universal Studios.

Mr Bones starring South Africa's Number One Boxoffice Star, Leon Schuster in the lead, was produced in 2001. Set against the backdrop of the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City, it is a classic slapstick comedy and is the highest grossing South African film of all time, earning more than R32 million to date.

The Zulu language feature film, Yesterday which received South Africa's first-ever Academy Award Nomination in the Best Foreign Language Category in 2005, is written and directed by Darrell James Roodt (Sarafina!, Cry, The Beloved Country) and stars Leleti Khumalo. The film focuses on the character Yesterday, rural village woman who contracts HIV/AIDS from her mineworker husband and her dream of seeing her daughter start school. Yesterday was also selected for the prestigious Venice and Toronto Film Festivals and won the inaugural Human Rights Film Award at the Venice Film Festival. It recently won the prestigious Peabody Award in the United States of America and received an Emmy nomination in the "Outstanding Made For Television Movie" category.

Red Dust, a suspense-filled courtroom drama which explores the effects of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The film stars Academy Award Winner Hilary Swank (Boys Don't Cry) and BAFTA nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor (Dirty Pretty Things). The film had its World Premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September 2004 and won the coveted Audience Prize at Miami Film Festival in 2005. The film was also presented at the Bangkok International Film Festival, the Palm Springs Film Festival and the Human Rights Nights Film Festival in Bologna, Italy and closed the inaugural Dubai International Film Festival. The Film was nominated for the BAFTA Television Awards in the category, Best Single Drama in March 2006.

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Sabido Investments (Proprietary) Limited (Sabido) has a range of media interests, the most significant of which is e.tv. During the year under review, Sabido invested in new media initiatives which will enhance e.tv's growing focus on the production, aggregation and distribution of content across multiple platforms in South Africa and abroad.

Overview of the year to 30 June 2008

• e.tv
  e.tv maintained its position as the largest English-medium television channel in South Africa and the second most watched channel overall. During the period under review, the channel averaged a 24-hour market share of 21.6% (2007: 21.9%) and a prime time (18:00-22:00) market share of 20.1% (2007: 18.6%). e.tv has continued to grow its market share among the black middle class, particularly among the celebrated "Black Diamond" group.
  
  Programming costs remained stable. Prime-time news, films, wrestling and South African dramas command the highest audience ratings. Newly launched local drama, Rhythm City, has shown unprecedented growth for a daily drama and has driven prime-time growth year on year. Television advertising spending continued to grow and e.tv achieved an 11.2% growth in revenue year on year. In pursuing its strategy to become a multi-channel business, e.tv continues to be actively involved in the development of a national policy for the introduction of digital terrestrial television in 2008.

• Other Sabido projects
  Sabido's other interests include e.sat, Viamedia, YFM, Sasani Studios, African broadcast interest, Natural History Unit and the Cape Town Film Studios and adjacent property development. During the year e.sat, a 100% subsidiary of Sabido, was awarded a satellite pay-TV licence. Sabido pursued potential investments in free-to-air television and radio broadcasters in various African countries. It acquired a 49% interest in Botswana-based Gaborone Broadcasting Company and is in the process of acquiring interests in West Africa and other parts of the continent. Sabido also entered into an agreement with Multichoice Africa to distribute a 24-hour news channel on the DStv platform. Sabido will have a 42.5% fully diluted shareholding in Cape Town Film Studios development and is in the process of investing in several entities complementary to its core business.

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