One for the road

Freddie Nyathela has been grappling with exactly that challenge in South Africa for more than three decades. At the outset of his career, the country’s live events sector had no formal pathway into technical production. If you wanted to work backstage, you learnt on the job. And if you didn’t know somebody already working in the industry, getting started was practically impossible.

“There was only one way you could get into the industry in those years, it was a case of who you know,” Nyathela recalls. “It was difficult for outsiders who wanted to get into the industry to find a way to be involved.”

Today, that observation feels remarkably familiar. Across the Middle East and Africa, manufacturers, rental companies, systems integrators and production providers all speak about the shortage of skilled technicians entering the industry. Nyathela recognised the problem long before workforce development became a regular topic of conversation. Rather than accepting that reality, he set out to change it.

Born out of Nyathela’s own struggle to gain a foothold in the industry and founded in 1992, the South African Roadies Association (SARA) is a unique and dynamic non-profit training organisation dedicated to empowering young people with much-needed live event technical production skills. The organisation was responsible for hosting Africa’s first-ever Live Event Technical & Production Conference (LETPC) from 2015–2019, as well as the Live Tech Edu Summit in 2023 in Parktown, Johannesburg, with international speakers from the UK, Germany, Australia, Denmark, the USA, Ghana and Kenya.

Nyathela’s introduction to live production came during the early 1980s as a roadie with Harari and South African singer-songwriter Sipho “Hotstix” Mabuse. Harari was one of the first black South African bands to own their own professional technical production equipment. Touring throughout South Africa and neighbouring countries exposed him to every aspect of live production while also revealing how fragile the industry’s skills pipeline really was.

The creation of SARA was never simply about training roadies. It was an attempt to create a structured route into an industry that had largely depended on experience, word of mouth and opportunity. More importantly, it sought to open technical careers to young South Africans who had previously been excluded from them.

The country’s technical education at the time focused largely on traditional studio sound engineering, while the live events industry itself remained relatively small. Rental companies were few in number and there was little recognition that the specialist skills required to stage concerts, festivals and major events deserved their own structured training.

“Because of apartheid, black people like myself were not allowed to acquire technical skills,” says Nyathela. “This kind of training never existed in South Africa and there was a lot of resistance. If not for our international community, SARA wouldn’t be where it is today.”

That cycle of learning has become self-sustaining, and the organisation’s ambitions now extend far beyond South Africa. Working with the UK’s Academy of Live Technology, SARA hopes to introduce higher-level qualifications while pursuing an even bigger goal: establishing a purpose-built Backstage Academy South Africa training centre to serve students from African countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

More than 30 years after identifying a gap in South Africa’s live production industry, Nyathela’s ambitions remain firmly focused on young people. Technology will continue to evolve, productions will become more sophisticated and new opportunities will emerge, but without a steady pipeline of skilled technicians, none of it is possible. He hopes SARA will take that message directly into schools through a programme of roadshows, inspiring students to consider careers in live event production much earlier in their education.

As SARA looks towards training the next generation of live production professionals from across the African continent, the organisation’s founding mission remains unchanged: creating opportunities for people who might otherwise never have found their way backstage.

Rather than abandoning the idea, Nyathela looked beyond South Africa’s borders. The first breakthrough came through Ireland. Working with the Irish government’s Agency for Personal Service Overseas (APSO), the body invited an experienced industry professional to assess both the organisation and its status in the South African live entertainment sector. His recommendation was straightforward: find an experienced trainer from Ireland to deliver an intensive six-month live sound production course. That programme launched in 1997 and became the foundation on which everything else was built.

What began as a single training initiative evolved into an international network of expertise. An unexpected meeting with an adviser to the director-general of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in 1997 opened another door. While the Dutch Ministry provided the financial backing, the trainers themselves came from leading Dutch promoter Mojo Concerts, owners of the North Sea Jazz and Lowlands festivals, delivering specialist live production management training. The French Institute subsequently supported an annual lighting course, while the British Council supported backline training and the Norwegians stage management courses. Partnerships with Denmark’s Roskilde Festival, the North Sea Jazz and Lowlands festivals in the Netherlands, and Norway’s Hove and Quart Festival later enabled SARA students to gain valuable on-the-job experience alongside professional international production crews. Since 2002, the organisation has also been sending students to work with Atlanta-based Universoul Circus, exposing them to different working practices, technologies and large-scale productions that were largely unavailable in South Africa at the time.

Each partnership has contributed another piece of the puzzle. Rather than concentrating on a single discipline, SARA gradually assembled a programme that reflected how live productions actually operate. Students weren’t simply taught sound. They were introduced to live sound, lighting, audiovisual systems, staging, backline, stage management and production techniques, developing an understanding of how every department contributes to the success of a live production.

“The only existing training programme was focused on studio sound engineering,” recalls Nyathela. “SARA’s training is broad. We have sound technicians, lighting technicians, audiovisual technicians… the list goes on.”

Nyathela is equally adamant that technical education cannot remain confined to the classroom. Students need to make mistakes, solve problems and build confidence using the same equipment they’ll encounter onsite and in the global market. Over the years, SARA has steadily invested in professional production infrastructure, from NEXO loudspeaker systems to LED displays and trussing. “These are toys that students need to have access to and be able to play with to properly understand,” he says.

One of Nyathela’s greatest rewards has been watching former students build successful careers and travel the world. Today, SARA has trained more than 2,000 students, with graduates working for equipment hire and production companies, broadcasters, churches, conference centres and the film industry, while others have built careers overseas or established production companies of their own. Many remain active throughout South Africa’s live events industry.

The organisation’s growing reputation was perhaps best demonstrated in 2010, when SARA supplied 140 technical and production crew members for the opening and closing ceremonies of the FIFA Confederations Cup and FIFA World Cup. Just as importantly, many of its former students have returned as guest lecturers and mentors, helping prepare the next generation for careers they themselves entered through the organisation.