Cape Town's Film Economy: 2026 Data Analysis

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July 23, 2026

Cape Town's Film Economy: 2026 Data Analysis

Data Analysis · Creative Economy

Cape Town's Film Economy, Explained

Cape Town is the busiest filming city in Africa. It issues more permits each year, hosts a major Netflix series at its studio complex, and earns an estimated R5 billion a year from screen production. Yet the national cash-back scheme that helps pay for the largest projects has approved nothing new since March 2024. This guide explains how the industry works, who pays for what, and where it all happens.

4,757

Filming permits issued in one year

R5bn

Estimated yearly local contribution

35,000

Jobs linked to the sector

80%

Western Cape share of foreign-funded work

2 yrs

Since the last incentive approval

Updated 23 July 2026 · By T. Koziol · Reading time approx. 18 minutes

If you live in Cape Town, you meet this industry as a closed street. A generator hums on Bree Street, a catering truck takes up half of Loop, and behind a line of cones a crew is turning the city into somewhere else. Between January and May 2025 the City issued 550 filming permits for the city centre alone.

If you live anywhere else, you meet it without noticing. The pirate harbour in a Netflix series, the desert chase in a car advert, the Californian suburb in a streaming drama: these are often Cape Town, dressed up.

This guide explains the business behind that. It is written for readers who do not work in film, so it defines its terms as it goes and shows the key sites on maps. The short version: the city's own performance is strong, while the national funding mechanism behind the biggest productions has stalled. Those two facts sit side by side throughout.

Six terms, defined once

Filming permit: Permission from the City to film in a public place. It covers the practical side: closing a street, parking trucks, using a beach. Every shoot needs one. It carries a fee and says nothing about how the production is funded.
Rebate (also called the incentive): A refund from national government of part of what a production spends inside South Africa. It is a major reason a foreign studio picks one country over another, because it lowers the real cost of the shoot.
Qualifying spend: The share of a budget that counts toward the rebate: local wages, local suppliers, local services. Money spent abroad does not count.
Letter of Approval: The document confirming a production has been accepted into the rebate scheme. Banks lend against it, so in practice no letter means no financing.
Adjudication panel: The committee inside the national department that reviews applications and issues those letters. If it does not meet, no approvals are issued.
Full-time equivalent (FTE): A way of counting jobs in an industry where most work is short-term. Two people on six-month contracts count as one FTE for the year, so FTE figures are always far lower than headcount.

Market Data

1. How Big the Industry Is

Three numbers get quoted, and they measure three different things. Keeping them apart makes everything that follows easier to read.

Activity is how much filming physically happens. The City's Film Permit Office issued 4,757 permits between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024, up 22% on the 3,910 issued the year before. These cover everything: features, commercials, series, stills shoots, documentaries, student films and music videos, with more than 9,317 separate location bookings behind them.

Economic contribution is what that activity is worth locally. A study commissioned by the City in 2022/23 put the film and media sector at roughly R5 billion a year and more than 35,000 jobs. Cape Town Film Studios alone reports R21 billion in economic impact and around 98,000 jobs across its first decade.

Rebate-linked investment is the smaller slice that flows through the national scheme. This is the measure that has fallen, and it explains why an industry with record permit numbers spent early 2026 protesting outside Parliament.

Two Measures, Moving in Opposite Directions

Panel A: filming permits issued by the City of Cape Town. Panel B: national production investment linked to the rebate. The two count different things, which is why one can rise while the other falls. Sources: City of Cape Town Film Permit Office; industry figures reported by IOL, March 2026.

Permit activity, latest year Rebate-linked investment, latest year Earlier comparison year

How to read this. Panel A counts every shoot that needs a street closed, including the thousands of commercials that never apply for a rebate. Panel B counts only projects going through the national scheme. A city can be busier than ever while the financing route for its largest productions is blocked, and that is the position in 2026.

In short: demand for Cape Town has not fallen. Locations, crews and studios are all in place. What changed sits in Pretoria, in a department that has not approved a rebate application since March 2024.

2. Where It Happens: Three Maps

Screen production in Cape Town runs across three kinds of place: the studio complex where sets are built, the city streets where most permits are used, and a second studio site now under development. Here they are.

Cape Town Film Studios, Faure

The main complex sits at Faure, roughly 30 kilometres east of the city centre, just off the N2 near where it meets Baden Powell Drive. It opened in May 2010 on a 200-hectare site, built at an initial cost of about R430 million as a partnership between private shareholders and all three tiers of government. Its shareholders are Videovision Entertainment and eMedia Investments.

It offers five sound stages, standing ship sets and a large deep-water tank, which is the feature that draws maritime productions. Its credits include Mad Max: Fury Road, Chronicle, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Black Sails, Good Omens, The Watch and all three seasons of Netflix's live-action One Piece.

Cape Town Film Studios, 7 Film City Boulevard, Faure. Set between the N2 and the Cape Flats, roughly 30 kilometres from the city centre and close to both the Winelands and the False Bay coastline, which is why a unit can reach several very different backdrops within an hour.

The city centre, where most permits are used

Studios build interiors; streets supply everything else. The Cape Town CBD is consistently the single busiest suburb for filming, with 1,148 permits issued over one recent counting period, and 550 in the first five months of 2025 alone. Its Victorian and Art Deco frontages, Company's Garden, harbour edge and grid layout allow it to stand in for cities on three continents.

The Cape Town CBD, the country's most filmed few square kilometres. Bree, Loop and Long Streets, the Foreshore and the Company's Garden appear regularly on screen, usually pretending to be somewhere else.

Paardevlei, Somerset West: the next studio

In late 2024 the City signed a lease over part of a municipal property at Paardevlei in Somerset West, clearing the way for a R900 million development by Cape Point Film Studios. The plans include a dedicated sea and underwater sound-stage precinct, a facility type that is scarce worldwide. The City estimated the project could generate close to R1 billion for the local economy and create several hundred jobs.

Paardevlei, Somerset West, the site of the planned R900 million Cape Point Film Studios complex. It lies about 15 kilometres south-east of the existing studios at Faure, close to the N2 and the False Bay shore, keeping both facilities inside one crew catchment area.

Why the geography matters. Crews work long days and travel to set before dawn. Keeping studios, accommodation and locations inside roughly an hour of one another lowers costs and shooting time. Cape Town's advantage is not only that it is beautiful, but that its variety is unusually compact.

3. Why Productions Come Here

The reasons are practical rather than romantic. Four of them account for most of it.

Many settings, short drives Within 1 Hour

Mountain, desert scrub, vineyard, Atlantic coast, Victorian terraces, concrete modernism and forest all sit within about an hour of the studios. A production can shoot northern California in the morning and the Mediterranean after lunch.

Experienced crews Specialist

Three decades of commercials and features built a deep local workforce, with particular strength in water units, large-scale set construction, costume and art department. Skills stay in a city once they are learned there.

Summer light in the northern winter Nov to Mar

Long daylight hours when Europe and North America are dark, so a production can extend its shooting year by moving south. Cape Town is also within two hours of Central European Time, which keeps producers and financiers on the same working day.

A rand-priced cost base Exchange Rate

Crew, construction and services are paid in rand while budgets arrive in dollars, euros and pounds. A weaker rand raises the cost of imports for residents and lowers the cost of Cape Town for foreign productions.

One example shows how these compound. The Starz series Black Sails filmed here for several seasons and left behind ship hulls, water-tank know-how and a generation of technicians who had learned to shoot on and under water. When Netflix later needed a home for One Piece, a story set almost entirely at sea, those crews and those hulls were already in place. Each large production makes the next one easier to win.

In short: Cape Town's advantages are structural. Geography, skills, daylight and the exchange rate cannot be undone by a policy decision. The rebate can be, and that is where the difficulty lies.

4. What Gets Made, and What It Is Worth

This is not mainly a feature-film town. Commercials dominate by volume and always have: a thirty-second spot for a European car brand, shot over three days by a crew of forty. Television series provide the depth, because one season occupies stages, crews and hotel rooms for six months or more. Features are the smallest category by count and the largest by reputation.

4,757

Permits, 2023/24 financial year

9,317+

Individual location bookings

1,148

Permits in the CBD, top suburb

550

CBD permits, Jan to May 2025

What one series is worth: One Piece

Netflix's live-action One Piece is the clearest available example of what a long-running international series does to a local economy.

Season one filmed from January 2022 under the working title "Project Panda". Season two ran from mid-2024 into early 2025 and was released on 10 March 2026. Season three began filming on 25 November 2025, was scheduled for more than 200 shooting days, and wrapped on 19 June 2026. Across those seasons the production has spent close to R1 billion locally with around 625 suppliers.

That supplier figure is the number worth remembering. It is not only camera crews and actors. It is lumber yards, steel fabricators, caterers, vehicle hire, laundries, security firms, physiotherapists and the guesthouse that takes a block booking for eight months. Most of these businesses have no other connection to the screen industry.

International crews booked more than 59,000 hotel bed nights in a single reporting period, worth close to R148 million at an average of about R2,500 a night.Commercial Producers Association and CCID figures

Estimates of the wider effect vary. One commonly cited figure is that every rand of production spend generates about R2.50 in further local activity; another puts the ratio across the whole value chain nearer 1:4. The gap between those two is a useful reminder to treat any single headline number with care, including the ones in this article.

In short: the visible part of filming, the closed street and the famous face, is a small share of its economic footprint. The larger share is a procurement network of several hundred ordinary local businesses per major production.

Core Section

5. How the Rebate Works

Almost every competitive filming country runs a cash rebate. The logic is simple. A production spends money locally; the state refunds a percentage of that spend; the refund makes the country cheaper than its rivals. Scenery alone does not win work, because scenery is available everywhere. A line on a budget does.

South Africa's version is the Film and Television Production Incentive, run nationally by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, usually shortened to the DTIC. The headline rate is 25% of qualifying South African spend, with higher bands for productions that also complete their post-production work here. Post-production means everything after filming: editing, visual effects, sound and colour grading.

The Rebate Ladder: What Share of Local Spend Comes Back

Headline rebate rates under the South African production and post-production incentive. Each rate depends on minimum spend thresholds and compliance conditions, and the guidelines have been revised more than once. Read these as the published structure, not a guaranteed outcome. Sources: DTIC incentive guidelines; industry summaries compiled by Mbrella Films and Malcolm Sutherland Films.

A worked example. A series spends R100 million in South Africa. At the 25% base rate, R25 million comes back. Complete R15 million of post-production locally as well, and the rate rises toward 30%, worth roughly R30 million. On a project of that size, the difference decides whether the shoot happens here or in a competing country.

At 25% to 30%, South Africa sits comfortably within the band offered by most mid-sized filming countries, and the local cost base makes the effective saving larger still. On paper the offer is competitive.

6. Why It Stopped Working

A rebate is not simply a discount at the end. It is a financing tool used at the beginning. Producers borrow against the money they expect to be refunded, and lenders want proof that the refund is coming. That proof is the Letter of Approval issued by the department after its adjudication panel reviews the application.

The panel last met in March 2024. No projects were approved in the 2024/25 financial year, and none in 2025/26. The scheme has never been formally closed, and the department describes it as open, citing budget pressure for the delays. In practice producers have treated the past two years as a pause.

Three consequences follow, and they are worth separating.

Unpaid claims. Productions that completed work and submitted valid claims have not been paid. Estimates of the outstanding total range from R600 million to R1 billion; protesters in January 2026 cited more than R660 million. Government has committed R473 million toward settling it.

Blocked new projects. Without approval letters, new productions cannot close their financing. Analysis prepared for the Independent Producers Organisation put the value of production capital waiting on the system at around R24 billion.

Credit damage. Producers who borrowed against expected refunds have missed loan terms through no fault of their own, and some report being turned down by banks as a result.

The Amounts at Issue

Sums in the incentive dispute, in rand millions. The R24 billion in production capital reported to be waiting on approvals is about twenty-four times the largest bar here, so it is noted in the annotation rather than plotted, which would flatten everything else to invisibility. Sources: Save SA Film Jobs Coalition; Variety; Vitrina industry analysis, 2026.

The scale comparison. The whole backlog, at its highest estimate, is R1 billion. The production spending reported to be waiting on the system is roughly twenty-four times that. Whatever view one takes of government spending priorities, the ratio between the amount owed and the activity it holds up is the figure that stands out.

The effect on employment

The clearest measure of the human effect is full-time-equivalent employment on rebate-linked productions, which fell from 4,943 in 2021 to 884 in 2024, an average decline of 43.6% a year.

One clarification matters here, because it is the most common confusion in coverage of this story. These are not the same jobs as the 30,000 to 35,000 the City attributes to the sector in Cape Town. That larger figure counts everyone whose work touches screen production, including all the commercials work that never involves a rebate. The FTE figure counts only rebate-linked productions, and counts them in full-year equivalents. Both numbers are correct; they answer different questions.

Full-Time-Equivalent Roles on Rebate-Linked Productions

Employment recorded on productions moving through the national incentive, 2021 and 2024, with the reported average annual rate of decline. This covers rebate-linked work only, not total sector employment. Source: industry figures cited by the Save SA Film Jobs Coalition, reported by IOL, March 2026.

Cyclical, then administrative. The pandemic and the 2023 Hollywood writers' and actors' strikes explain part of this decline, and the industry expected work to return once the strikes ended. It largely did not, which is what moved the explanation from the business cycle to the approvals process.

How it unfolded

Before 2020
The competitive years
The incentive helps establish South Africa as a leading destination, supporting an estimated 30,000 to 60,000 direct workers nationally, with annual production value put at R8 billion to R10 billion.
2015 to 2025
The decade measured
Analysis by the consultancy Olsberg SPI for the Independent Producers Organisation finds film and television added R26.4 billion in total value over the period, with the contribution highest in 2022.
2023/24
Budget cut, new guidelines
The incentive budget is reduced by R136 million. Revised guidelines introduce a R25 million threshold. Producers describe the new rules as complex and hard to interpret.
March 2024
The last approval meeting
The adjudication panel meets for what proves, so far, to be the final time. No projects are approved in 2024/25 or 2025/26.
March 2025
Concern reaches the trade press
International coverage reports unpaid claims and notes that commissioners are moving projects to countries with more predictable systems, among them Mauritius and Colombia.
28 to 29 Jan 2026
Marches in Cape Town and Pretoria
Crew, actors and producers gather outside Parliament, then outside the department's Pretoria offices, asking for approval meetings to resume, claims to be paid, an online tracking portal and an investigation.
Feb to Mar 2026
Parliament and a partial commitment
Both sides present to the portfolio committee. Government commits R473 million toward the backlog. The Olsberg SPI findings are presented at the JBX market during the Joburg film festival.
May to Jun 2026
A transitional period
Producers are asked to submit Form B applications recording the start of filming, and government and industry discuss a modernised scheme. New approvals remain outstanding.

Why competitors matter here. Mauritius and Colombia now offer rebates at rates comparable to or above South Africa's, with faster processing. Production financing follows certainty rather than scenery, so a country that cannot answer within a financing window loses work it would otherwise win. Reputations of this kind take years to rebuild.

In short: the rate is competitive; the process is not. The industry is not asking for a larger percentage. It is asking for meetings to be held, decisions to be issued and valid claims to be paid.

7. What It Costs to Shoot Here

For anyone comparing Cape Town with alternatives, the cost base is the other half of the argument the rebate begins. The figures below are indicative 2026 industry rates rather than quotes, and they move with the exchange rate, the season and the size of the unit.

Currency note: euro and dollar equivalents use the mid-market reference rate of R1 ≈ €0.052 ≈ $0.061 (1 EUR ≈ R19.27, 1 USD ≈ R16.41), per Xe and Trading Economics. Productions usually fix an internal rate when budgeting, so real-world conversions vary.

Standard 10-hour crew day

R34,000-R45,000

≈ €1,770-2,340 / $2,070-2,740

A basic professional unit. Complex lighting and several cameras push this to a multiple of the figure.

Director of photography

R6,500-R20,000

≈ €340-1,040 / $400-1,220

Per day, depending on the scale and profile of the production.

First assistant director

R3,500-R10,000

≈ €180-520 / $210-610

Per day. Crew rates follow the 10-hour day guidelines set by industry bodies.

Crew hotel night

R2,500

≈ €130 / $152

Average across recorded film-crew bed nights, a figure that has reshaped inner-city hotel occupancy.

Whole projects span a wide range. A micro-budget documentary can be delivered for around R1.5 million. International co-productions routinely spend more than R50 million locally, and a season of a large streaming series runs to several multiples of that. Because the rebate carries minimum spend thresholds, it is aimed at the upper end of this range, which is also the end that employs the most people for the longest time.

In short: Cape Town is inexpensive by international standards and expensive by local ones. That gap is the sector's value to the city, because foreign budgets pay local wages.

Forward Looking

8. What to Watch Next

Three indicators will show whether 2027 reads as a recovery or a slow erosion. All three are public, and all three are checkable without inside knowledge.

1. The first new approval Key Signal

One Letter of Approval issued to a new project would show the process is working again. Until then, the published rate cannot be financed against, whatever else is announced.

2. The new studio builds Capacity

The R900 million Paardevlei development and the Cradle complex outside Johannesburg both add capacity on the expectation that demand returns. Building into a frozen scheme is a considerable bet.

3. The July permit figures Independent Read

The City publishes permit counts each July. Because permits capture commercials and local work that never touch the rebate, they are the cleanest independent check on whether physical activity is holding up.

What is not in doubt Stable

Locations, crews, studios and the cost advantage are all intact, and a Netflix flagship completed its third Cape Town season in June 2026. The city's underlying offer has not weakened; the route to financing it has.

The constraint is not talent, locations or infrastructure. It is certainty.Position advanced by the Save SA Film Jobs Coalition, January 2026

9. Recent Developments

June 2026

One Piece wraps its third Cape Town season

Netflix's live-action series completed principal photography on 19 June after more than 200 shooting days based at Cape Town Film Studios, the third consecutive season shot in the city and among the largest productions ever mounted in Africa.

Source: Netflix Tudum; Cape Town Etc

May 2026

Industry describes a transitional period as new framework is discussed

Producers reported being asked to submit Form B applications recording the start of principal photography, while government and industry bodies continued discussions on modernising the incentive. Producers confirmed that 2025 had effectively been a paused year.

Source: Screen International

March 2026

Olsberg SPI study presented at JBX market

Research commissioned by the Independent Producers Organisation found that film and television production added R26.4 billion in total gross value to the South African economy between 2015 and 2025, with the contribution peaking in 2022 as revised incentive guidelines were rolled out.

Source: Variety

March 2026

City reports a second cancelled meeting with the national department

The City of Cape Town said a scheduled engagement with the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition on the incentive was cancelled for a second time, with the City asked to submit written representations instead.

Source: IOL, Cape Argus

10 March 2026

One Piece season two premieres worldwide

The season, shot largely at Cape Town Film Studios with sets including full-scale ship decks and a deep-water tank, was released in full on Netflix. A local premiere was held in Cape Town two days earlier.

Source: Netflix; Cape Town Etc

28-29 January 2026

Film workers gather outside Parliament and the DTIC

Hundreds of crew, actors and producers gathered in Cape Town and Pretoria under the Save SA Film Jobs banner, asking for approval meetings to resume, outstanding claims to be paid, an online tracking portal to be created and the administration of the scheme to be reviewed.

Source: GroundUp via AllAfrica; News24

November 2025

One Piece season three begins filming in Cape Town

Cameras rolled from 25 November with the original cast reassembled in the city, confirming Cape Town as the anchor location for one of Netflix's largest ongoing productions.

Source: Netflix Tudum

December 2024

City signs lease for R900 million studio development

A lease over part of a City-owned property at Paardevlei in Somerset West paved the way for Cape Point Film Studios to develop a new complex, with plans including a dedicated sea and underwater sound-stage precinct.

Source: City of Cape Town; Property Flash

10. Questions and Sources

How big is Cape Town's film industry?

A City-commissioned study put the film and media sector's local contribution at roughly R5 billion a year, supporting more than 35,000 jobs. The City issued 4,757 filming permits in the 2023/24 financial year, and the Western Cape accounts for about 80% of South Africa's foreign-funded film projects.

What is the film rebate, and is it still available?

It is a cash rebate administered by the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, with a headline rate of 25% on qualifying South African production spend and higher bands tied to local post-production. The scheme has not been formally closed, but its adjudication panel last met in March 2024 and no new projects were approved in 2024/25 or 2025/26. Producers should treat approval timelines as uncertain and seek current advice before budgeting against it.

Which productions have been filmed at Cape Town Film Studios?

Among others: Mad Max: Fury Road, Chronicle, Maze Runner: The Death Cure, Black Sails, Good Omens, The Watch and all three seasons of Netflix's live-action One Piece, whose third season wrapped in June 2026.

Why do international productions choose Cape Town over other cities?

Location range within an hour's drive, deep crew expertise (particularly marine and large-scale construction work), summer daylight when the northern hemisphere is dark, a time zone close to Central European Time, and a rand-denominated cost base against foreign budgets.

What is the difference between a permit and the rebate?

A permit is local and practical: the City's permission to film in a public place, needed by every shoot. The rebate is national and financial: a refund from government of part of what a production spends in South Africa. A production can have a permit and no rebate, which is the case for most commercials.

Does any of this affect residents directly?

Mainly through street closures, parking restrictions and short-term work. The sector supports an estimated 35,000 jobs in Cape Town and fills hotel rooms outside the tourist season, so the effects reach hospitality, transport, catering and construction well beyond the crews themselves.

How do I apply for a film permit in Cape Town?

Through the City of Cape Town's Film Permit Office, which handles permits for features, commercials, series, stills, documentaries, shorts, student projects and music videos. Permits are separate from the national incentive: a permit lets you shoot, the rebate refunds part of what you spend.

What does it cost to shoot in Cape Town?

Indicatively, a standard 10-hour professional crew day runs about R34,000 to R45,000 for a basic setup, with a director of photography at R6,500 to R20,000 a day. Project budgets range from about R1.5 million for micro-budget documentaries to R50 million and well beyond for international co-productions.

Sources and references

Official and Institutional

City of Cape Town Film Permit Office, permit statistics for the 2022/23 and 2023/24 financial years, as reported by Engineering News and the Cape Town Central City Improvement District.
Invest Cape Town, film and media sector profile, including the City-commissioned economic impact study (approximately R5 billion annually, 35,000+ jobs).
Department of Trade, Industry and Competition, Film and Television Production Incentive guidelines and revised guidelines.
Cape Town Film Studios, corporate and facilities information.
National Film and Video Foundation, incentive overview.

Industry Research and Trade Press

Olsberg SPI, study commissioned by the Independent Producers Organisation covering 2015 to 2025, presented March 2026 (R26.4 billion total gross value added; contribution peaking in 2022).
Variety, reporting on the rebate delays, March 2025 and March 2026.
Screen International, feature on the transitional incentive period, May 2026.
Vitrina industry analysis, February 2026, on the administrative freeze and stalled production capital.
Commercial Producers Association of South Africa, foreign investment and bed-night figures.

News Coverage

IOL and Cape Argus, coverage of DTIC engagement cancellations and sector employment figures, March 2026.
GroundUp via AllAfrica and News24, coverage of the January 2026 protests in Cape Town and Pretoria.
Netflix Tudum and Cape Town Etc, One Piece production announcements and local impact reporting.
Property Flash and Getaway, Cape Point Film Studios lease and development coverage.

Exchange Rates

Xe and Trading Economics mid-market rates, ZAR/EUR and ZAR/USD, 2026.

A note on conflicting figures: sources differ on sector employment (30,000 to 35,000 in Cape Town, 30,000 to 60,000 nationally), on the multiplier (from R2.50 per rand of spend to a 1:4 value-chain ratio) and on the size of the unpaid backlog (R600 million to R1 billion). Where estimates diverge, this article presents the range rather than selecting a single figure. Photography: no Wikimedia Commons image with verifiable author and licence details was confirmed at publication time, and per our editorial policy no attribution has been fabricated.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for general information purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, legal, tax or professional advice. Incentive rates, thresholds and administrative processes are subject to change and to the discretion of the administering department; anyone budgeting against the South African film incentive should obtain current professional advice and confirmation directly from the relevant authorities. Statistics are drawn from the third-party sources listed above and reflect the most recent data available at the time of writing. Currency conversions are indicative mid-market approximations. Ceraluna Labs and capetowndata.com accept no liability for decisions made on the basis of this content. All trademarks, production titles and company names remain the property of their respective owners.

This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed and verified by humans.

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Charts from this story

Economy · 30 Jun 2024

Cape Town filming permits rose 22% in a year, to 4,757

More filming took place in the city, even though investment tied to the national film rebate fell sharply. The two figures count different things.

Source: City of Cape Town Film Permit Office

Open chart ↗

Economy · 31 Dec 2026

South Africa pays film makers back 20% to 30% of what they spend here

Doing R15 million of editing and effects work locally raises the rebate from 25% to 30%. On a big production that can decide where the work is done.

Source: Department of Trade, Industry and Competition