Pirates roam city’s streets with booty

POLOKWANE – PIRATED DVD’s and CD’s are easily purchased in downtown Polokwane, with the “pirates” selling them having no qualms at palming illegal copies of movies and music to anyone interested at an extremely low price.

Express investigated this phenomenon and found that the creation and selling of pirated DVD’s and CD’s had become an organised crime, with the so-called pirates being organised into groups and allocated specific areas around the city; this despite police patrols that were done regularly.
One such pirate, Mike Mfulwane, told Express that he was from Pretoria.

“I came to Polokwane because in Pretoria it’s difficult to make money. There are guys selling movies on every street corner and in Polokwane things are better.”

Asked whether he did not see anything wrong with his trade, Mfulwane said: “What I do is better than selling drugs or stealing; I know it is piracy but there is nothing else to do”.
Other men, mostly foreign nationals, who also worked in the area near Mfulwane, said they were selling pirated products because it was the quickest way of making money. One of the foreign nationals, who did not wish to be named, said they each made an average of R300 a day from selling the pirated DVD’s and CD’s.

“We make sure we have a lot of stock, and even though we only make a small profit, we live on this money.”

A regular customer of these pirates, who did not wish to be identified, said she bought pirated copies because they were cheaper and easily accessible. “Although sometimes the quality is not good one doesn’t worry because R10 is quite affordable. I can’t afford to buy the expensive originals in the shops,” she said.
Music producer and owner of Extreme records in Polokwane, Mpho “DJ Extreme” Modiba, said piracy was killing the music business and getting out of hand. “The sad reality is that government is not doing anything about it at all. They don’t even support local musicians, so we don’t expect them to care much about pirating either,” he said.

Polokwane police spokesperson, Capt Ntobeng Phala, said the police were not aware that people selling copied DVD’s and CD’s had returned to the city centre. “We have dealt very harsh with these people in the past and confiscated their illegal DVD’s and CD’s.

“As of now we will deploy patrolling teams around the mentioned areas.”
Phala also appealed to people to stop supporting these criminals by buying their products. He also said it had becoming increasingly difficult to know where these criminals were operating. “We rely on residents to be whistle-blowers but instead people are creating a market for this type of thing,” he concluded.