While seasoned actors are paid well in movies, quite of actors agree that a major contributing factor to their wealth comes from soapies. This is why we see most South African actors doing soapies or telenovelas because there aren’t as many movies made in South Africa as compared to other movie industries such as Nollywood, Bollywood, or Hollywood.
Main Actors
Vusi Kunene is the highest-paid actor on the set of Generations The Legacy. He’s been in the industry for more than 25 years and takes home between R70, 000 to R150, 000 per month, followed by Tau Mogale played by Rapulana Seiphemo, whose take-home is between R60, 000 and R120, 000 per month.
Amongst other seasoned actors are the likes of Manaka Ranaka who plays Lucy Diale, Latoya Makhene who plays Tshidi Moroka, and Vuyo Dabula who plays Kumkani Phakade earn between R40, 000 to R70, 000.
Musa Ngema who plays the role of Mazwi Moroka earns between R35,000 to R40,000 per month. Moopi Mothibeli who played Smanga Moroka earned more and had a take-home of R37,000 to R45,000 per month. Kope Makgae acts the role of Mrekza Makhafola earns between R25,000 to R30,000 per month.
Supporting Actor
These are actors like Mbali, Fikile’s ex-husband and Gog Flo. Supporting actors earn between R1,500 to R5,000 per call – which is a 12-hour day of work. These actors can be paid up to R6,000 per call.
Extras
The term ‘extras’ refers to non-speaking actors or random individuals, who are in most cases untrained. They earn from R250 to R500 per call.
The most paid soapie actors are from ETV, followed by SABC then DSTV. Actors from Isibaya are the least paid in South Africa compared to actors from The Queen, The River, and Gomora.
