The objective of the Theatre Benevolent Fund is to provide financial relief to professional members from all disciplines of the entertainment industry, and their dependants, who find themselves in distressed financial circumstances, either because of ill health, old age, accidents or any such misfortune which prevents from practising their profession.

Many of theatre practitioners whose circumstances do not allow them to cope financially, much loved and acclaimed in their time, are today, often, and disturbingly alone in their plight.

Rules and Regulations

Background

Examples of assistance offered by TBF

• Medical and hospital fees for an actor/singer who broke both legs in a car accident en-route to the theatre (R8 000).



• Donation to a well-known broadcaster to defray some of the heavy costs incurred for brain surgery and hospital fees (R6 500).



• Funeral expenses for one of our most renowned stage actors as well as for a famous radio actor whose family could not manage the costs (R3 000 and R3 700).



• Medical costs and funeral expenses for the son of a Sowetan actor who could not afford to pay as he had lost his job in a cancelled stage production (R10 000).



• Portion of the airfare for a parent travelling from Australia to Johannesburg to be with her ballet dancer son who was seriously injured in a car accident (R4 000).

Additionally, more than R120 000 is spent annually subsidising the living expenses of theatre people who can no longer perform:

• In central Johannesburg an 89-year-old actress of great repute throughout South Africa, spends her days alone, coupled to a respirator.



• Also in Johannesburg, one of our most talented ballerinas who is in a wheelchair bound after a stroke fifteen years ago.



• In Soweto, a female singer, renowned for her rousing concerts throughout Africa, now in her late sixties and struggling to survive financially.



• In Mamelodi, a 76 year old man, who worked as a stage hand-cum-driver for more than 30 years and who cannot make ends meet on a small pension.



• In Pretoria, one of our leading Afrikaans actresses from the mid-forties, who had been blind for many years and who had been supported by the TBF until she died a few months ago.

Sources of Income

The Theatre Benevolent Fund does not receive any subsidy from any government department and is exclusively dependent on voluntarily donations from the members of the theatre fraternity, theatre manangemetns, kind business organisations as well as the theatre public. During the last two years, the donations have dwindled so much so that we may not be able to meet our responsibilities. Therefore we are compelled to make a new plight to the theatre community and the theatregoer to assist us to provide help to the artists and technicians who are experiencing misfortune and destitution.

If you would like to find out more about the TBF, please do not hesitate to contact the Secretary, Jeanette Bradley, at the address below.

Donations can be sent to:

Alternatively, directly deposited in the Bank Account:
First National Bank
Branch Code: 250117
Branch: North Rand
Account number: 620 243 986 71