Kamogelo Seekoei

Kamogelo Seekoei

In less than eight months, Operation Dudula has saved the music industry at least R19million.

The campaign was launched in April against music and film piracy to nail counterfeit CDs, DVDs and cassettes.

Operation Dudula, spearheaded by Mzwakhe Mbuli in partnership with the police, has achieved more in one year than ever before.

Since the launch more than 62 people have been arrested countrywide during raids conducted by members of Operation Dudula and the police. Most of the suspects were fined between R100000 and R300000.

Recently, a factory in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni, was also raided where thousands of fake products were seized. Equipment used to make the fake products were also found at the factory.

Shops in Fordsburg were raided. Marches were also held countrywide to make music buyers aware of the crippling effects piracy has on the industry.

Said Mbuli: "This campaign has achieved more in a year than others have in 10 years. And though we can quantify the value by rands, what we have lost goes beyond monetary value.

"At least now these people know that we have taken a stand against piracy, and we are coming after them."

This became evident when a Sowetan photographer could not get a picture of counterfeit products on the streets of Johannesburg.

Mbuli said the South African music industry should adopt the method used in Ghana where every released album gets a clearance from the police.

"I think we need to adopt that experience and see how it will help us," he said.

He said if nothing is done there will be huge problems in 2010.

"These people can create a CD cover without us spotting the difference, they can achieve the same results with those tickets."

The campaign also received support from the taxi industry, which vowed to stop buying fake products.