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Road to Riches
Thursday, August 28, 2003
A penetrating report on black economic empowerment in post-apartheid South Africa, where whites still earn an average of $6,300 each year, while blacks bring home only $950. The documentary focuses on Uthingo, the consortium of black-empowerment companies that manages the national lottery. Created under legislation enacted by the African National Congress (ANC) government, the lottery is an example of its black economic empowerment principles, designed to help transfer more of the nation's wealth and opportunity into the hands of South Africa's black majority. Uthingo won the extremely competitive bid to manage the lottery because its empowerment profile was so strong: currently, 96% of its workers are from previously disadvantaged groups. While Uthingo has created 10,000 new jobs, mostly for black South Africans, broad social change, including black ownership and participation in other industries, is slow in coming. Ironically, buying a lottery ticket may still offer the best chance of riches for many. The film reveals the stark contrasts among the lives of South Africans almost ten years after the demise of apartheid. Some believe they were financially better off before, and while the ANC government of President Mbeki has improved living conditions for black South Africans, the clock is still clearly ticking to do even more to improve life for the black majority -- or face the consequences.
 Watch a preview video
Director Mandy Jacobson is an award-winning documentary producer and director whose work has been featured on CNN, CBS, CINEMAX, PBS and TLC. Jacobson won two Emmy awards for CALLING THE GHOSTS, a film about rape, war and women in Bosnia, which she directed and produced. Other producing credits include FACING THE TRUTH with Bill Moyers about South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, for which she was a field producer and which received the 1999 DuPont-Columbia Gold Baton and a Peabody Award; THE ARUSHA TAPES, a chronicle of the first six trials of the United Nations Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and LOCKED UP SETTLING IN, which examines life behind bars in a Louisiana State Penitentiary.
Writer and Producer Itumeleng Mahabane is assistant executive editor for South Africa's FINANCIAL MAIL. His beat covers investment and business and he writes about black economic empowerment. In 2002, he received the SUNDAY TIME's Bessie Head Writer's Fellowship. He recently completed a commemorative book on the June 16th uprisings and is currently developing a drama series with Curious Pictures on black economic empowerment and writing a book about black business in South Africa.
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