Sulu Chimbetu says he had a terrible time in South Africa after his promoter duped him. “We failed to perform in Witbank on Friday because...
Sulu Chimbetu says he had a terrible time in South Africa
after his promoter duped him. “We failed to perform in Witbank on Friday
because the ‘promoter’ Tinashe Mvundhla turned out to be a crook who
capitalises on Zimbabwean musicians and venue owners just to con them.
Mr Mvundhla’s modus operandi is that he engages Zimbabwean
artistes under the pretext that he has a festival that he is organising. On the
other hand, he goes to venue owners and asks them to pay transport, allowances
and accommodation for the visiting artistes so that they would then get
reimbursed through gate-takings.
As the day of the proposed show nears, he begs the artiste
to change the deal so that they split the gate-takings in half.
In our case, because the shows had been advertised, we only
agreed to ensure that we do not tarnish the brand. So, we indeed traveled to
Witbank but were surprised to note that the venue owner had been told that he
would get all the gate-takings. We tried to negotiate but because of the
investment that the venue owner had put in, he felt that he was entitled to get
all the money. This is the reason for which the show was cancelled on Friday.
To avoid similar issues in Joburg, we engaged the venue
owner early on Saturday and he assured us that everything was in place.
However, at the show, we had serious security problems as some tried to get
free access while some tried to steal from the cashiers. The police came in and
dispensed pepper spray but that eventually negatively affected the show.
On Sunday, in Pretoria, we also had similar security
challenges albeit, these were worse. Some thugs came to the entrance and said
the show had too many people so they wanted R800 to allow us to continue. When
we resisted, they blocked the cash office and started collecting gate-takings.
Seeing that we had no option, we gave them the R800 they demanded but they had
already collected money from a good number of people.
However, all hell broke loose when Sulu went for a breather
and bouncers besieged him demanding money. He managed to break free of them and
ran out of the venue leaving two of his team members who were managing the show
behind. When he was outside, another car sped towards him and he sought refuge
in his car which was nearby. Meanwhile, the two he had left behind were searched
for money because the thugs thought they were handling the cash from the gate.
Fortunately, the was being kept off-site.
All this happened because Mr Mvundhla did not organise the
security that he had committed to when he engaged us.
As if this was not enough, Mr Mvundhla was being chased by
several people who demanded their money for various services rendered to him.
The venue owner from Witbank had also been promised 26% of the gate-takings
from each of the Johannesburg and Pretoria shows and was even sleeping in the
car for two days to try and recover his money but he never did.
When we returned to the hotel where the band was staying,
Mr Mvundhla came and demanded his share despite having agreed with him that we
would do a reconciliation on Monday morning. When we stuck to our guns, he even
slept on the doorstep until Monday morning when he was allowed access to the
room.
On doing the reconciliation, he demanded money even though
all his share had been spent in costs as he kept directing some of his service
providers to our management to collect money.
We only proceeded with the rest of the tour to ensure that
we safeguard the name of the brand, but we had already written off getting
anything meaningful from the tour.
However, we have made peace with Mr Mvundhla and accepted
that disorganization is in his nature and no one can help him change. As
businesspeople, we concede that we were beaten on this tour and we are wiser.
We urge other musicians and venue owners to be wary of
people like Mr Mvundhla and never to deal with such.
To the ODK family in Mzansi, we are wiser, and we are
coming back. By the end of this week, we will be announcing our South African
calendar for the next two months."
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