Gospel musician, Charles Charamba left revellers shocked and angry after he suddenly cut short his performance at an Independence gala that was held at the Wadzanai Gardens in Shamva on Sunday.
Charamba who was the event’s main performer together with his wife Olivia and their Fishers of Men band, were supposed to perform from 5.30pm to 9.30pm but ended up unofficially leaving the stage at around 7.30pm after their performance had been disrupted due to electricity power cuts that intermittently occurred at least seven times during their performance.
“As much as we want to be with you I must warn you that if another power cut occurs after this my band and I will be leaving this show,” said Charamba to the audience.
Just after Charamba took the stage there were power problems and electricity would go on and off for several times. Organisers of the show had to switch on a back-up generator but that was already too late since the musician could no longer endure the disturbances.
Charamba angrily walked off the stage leaving his wife and band members standing in amazement.
Suddenly the situation turned ugly as revellers from every direction shouted at the band and organisers.
Joseph Kufandiko, who organised the show, could be seen trying to persuade the musician’s wife to tell her husband to come back on stage to no avail.
Mai Charamba eventually went off the stage with the rest of the band trailing her.
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“Everything was in order and the fault was beyond our control. When we managed to identify the problem and solve it, we thought the show would just go on but we were disappointed by Charamba’s behaviour.
“How could he easily breach our contract without even hearing from us what the problem was?” said Kufandiko.
He said Charamba had been the highest paid performer for the show and he had been unprofessional to walk off the stage without any negotiations or discussion with the organisers.
Kufandiko said even the singer’s wife had been shocked by her husband’s actions and the only reason why she had remained on stage was because she hoped he would return as the problem had been fixed.
“He is too arrogant and he has shown it in front of all these people, he never gave us a chance to explain to him what was happening but his wife seemed very understanding,” he said.
Mai Charamba was a victim of verbal abuse as fans shouted at her when her husband left the stage. It was clear that the sizable crowd was sympathising with the organisers as many of them even talked of “beating the Charambas out of Shamva”.
“Charamba’s behaviour is not expected from a Christian. He has even duped us out of our money because he was not patient. He should have come back after the electricity problem had been solved,” said an angered reveller.
James Nyamande who is leader of the Four Brothers who gave a splendid performance of the late superstar, Marshal Munhumumwe’s hit tracks had earlier on told NewsDay that problems like these could be expected anywhere and they would give the organisers a chance to solve the electricity problem.
“We are here to celebrate our country’s independence with the people of Shamva and we are definitely performing, there is no need to boycott since such problems can be rectified,” he said.
The party went on despite the havoc that had occurred earlier with highly energetic performances from other artistes like The Four Brothers, R&K African Sounds, Caveman, Paradzai Mesi and Almaxton to mention a few.
There were people of all ages including mothers with children on their backs, youths and old men.
