Minister of Information, Communications and Technology Savannah Maziya says 2 774 content creators have been registered in the country.
Maziya said the aim was to open doors for content creators so they could engage with platform holders and owners.
She said government would not be able to grow the creators themselves, but could open doors for them to learn how to operate and increase their numbers.
This was shared by the minister during the debate on the Ministry of Information, Communications and Technology’s first-quarter performance report in Senate.
She said government was also helping content creators understand how monetisation currently worked and how to enter the full monetisation process.
Maziya said the ministry had started with TikTok, but wanted to find ways to bring other platforms on board.
She said the ministry wanted to bring in YouTube and Meta to discuss their operations and what they encouraged content creators to do to earn money in the country.
“This is an area which is important to us as a ministry because it helps us contribute to job creation in the country.
“We need to open the doors so that content creators can have an opportunity to make money,” she said.
Senator Fezeka Dlamini said the ministry had established a national Digital Content Creators (DCC) register and hosted a TikTok seminar.
She asked how many creators had registered so far and what specific revenue opportunities had been secured by the ministry for them.
Dlamini said she was proud to represent young people in the country and wanted clarity on some of the issues affecting the youth.
“People are making millions using content on these platforms and I want to know if the ministry is helping local creators with revenue opportunities, or helping them perfect their content.
“I want to know if they get any money when they reach a certain number of followers, or what,” she said.
