• A local content creator has drawn the ire of the Road Traffic Management Corporation.
• The creator uses modded content in his videos, that show SAPS and National Traffic Police-branded vehicles causing havoc across the virtual world of San Andreas.
• The Corporation has called for the creator to desist posting such content, but doesn’t really have any legal recourses to enforce this.

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) V is one of the most popular games in the world. Fan fervour over the game has been extended even further through players roleplaying on Grand Theft Auto Online (an additional game mode that comes with GTA V).

In the US, Twitch streamers will often roleplay as gangsters or criminals holding heists, and some will play on the opposite side of the law, living out their cops and robbers movie fantasies in a safe and fun environment.

Today a South African content creator has been called out by the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) over videos he has posted on TikTok of his gameplay. Sunday Nkosi, who goes by nkssa94 on TikTok and YouTube posts his gameplay of a modded version of GTA V in which he roleplays as a member of the South African Police Service (SAPS).

The RTMC has taken umbrage with the fact that Nkosi is driving modded SAPS and National Traffic Police vehicles while he plays across the virtual, fictional world of San Andreas. Most of the time, Nkosi is answering in-game calls and either shooting people or driving over them (at least 80 percent of what you do in the game, let’s be honest.)

“The Road Traffic Management (RTMC) has noted with concern a violent social media video game in which images of the National Traffic Police is used,” reads an official statement from the RTMC.

The video in question, as seen in the Tweet below from Arrive Alive, shows a clip of Nkosi’s gameplay, where he is driving over criminals inside a very accurately modded South African traffic police vehicle, complete with a Gauteng number plate.

“The corporation distances itself from the video and its distasteful content.”

Additionally, the RTMC says it would like to place on record that it is not working with content creator Sunday Nkosi and that it doesn’t endorse what it calls “TikTok video games.” Reserving its copyrights.

“We call on Sunday Nkosi to desist from using our brand without our permission to develop his content,” the statement concludes.

While we are happy that GTA has once again angered public officials in some way, the RTMC has misplaced their rage on the wrong target. Nkosi is simply a middleman. He does not build the mods used in his videos, instead there is a huge GTA V modding community, and some members are modding South African vehicles into the game.

For example, modder Jakkalsfuche has made a SAPS skin for the Maveric helicopter found in game.

The same modder has also modded a SAPS uniform into the game. Another modder has made a vehicle skin for the Cape Town Traffic Service.

Yet another modding website has mods for the SAPS 2014 VW Mk 7 which is used by Nkosi in his videos. It isn’t just SAPS either. Modders have also placed American police forces into their games.

These mods are created and freely distributed, meaning that their creators aren’t making any money. Basically, they are made for fun, for players to enjoy. The RTMC says its rights are reserved when it comes to logos and branding, but when it comes to in-game mods, the legislation simply doesn’t exist in South Africa.

In fact, the only local law that covers gaming that we could find is the 1999 guidelines (PDF) for the legal age requirements to play certain games. Overseas is a different story, however, and the Michigan Technology Review says that modding games is only legal in the US as long as the game’s developer doesn’t have any problem with it. As soon as the developer, in this case being Rockstar, decides that a mod infringes a copyright, they can pursue legal action.

So it seems the RTMC doesn’t have a legal recourse here, other than asking Nkosi to take his videos down. Ironically, the RTMC has funnelled more viewers than ever to Nkosi’s channels through their statements, and he is well aware.

So unless Rockstar decides that SAPS skins on in-game vehicles infringe on their own copyrights, nothing will be done about Nkosi’s use of RTMC branding. In the meanwhile, we’ll all just go back to not thinking too much about how people enjoy the games they buy.

[Image – NKSSA94]