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Makoni’s $5 000 miracle song

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SOLO musician Steve “Dhongi” Makoni will forever cherish the day authorities at Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation decided to politicise his 2007 song Mambo.

SOLO musician Steve “Dhongi” Makoni will forever cherish the day authorities at Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) decided to politicise his 2007 song Mambo. Entertainment Reporter

In 2011, the song from his album Ndada Ndada Ndada (Heart of the Rhythm), received unprecedented airplay in an apparent move to politicise its lyrics that suggested strangers cannot crown a king in the presence of his relatives.

The musician is on record saying ZBC’s adoption of the song was a miracle since he had forgotten about the old track and never thought it would receive so much airplay.

Now, six years down the line, Makoni will be smiling all the way to the bank to reap the yields of the song beyond his expectations. Makoni is the highest earner of music royalties being disbursed by Zimbabwe Music Rights Association (Zimura).

NewsDay has it on good authority that Makoni will this week pocket more than $5 000 in royalties for 2011.

Zimura started paying 2011 royalties last week.  The association’s backlog emanates from ZBC’s failure to remit royalties over the past couple of years.

Zimura announced it sourced funds for royalties through a massive exercise to license owners of public places and transport that play music.

The association is disbursing royalties in batches in alphabetical order of names of its members and Makoni and many others whose surnames start with the letter “M” were expected to get their dues by the end of this week.

Zimura director Polisile Ncube confirmed Makoni was among the top earners, but refused to disclose the amount.

Our source revealed that, with an excess of $5 000 royalties, Makoni is on number three, but becomes the top earner because the other top two, Mbare Chimurenga Choir and Born Free Crew, have different composers and would have to split their earnings. Makoni, being a solo musician, pockets all his royalties.

Makoni has already contacted Zimura with an arrangement to have his money deposited in his bank account or sent through Ecocash. The musician was not reachable for comment yesterday. He previously told this reporter that he did not compose the song with political connotations, but would gladly take the royalties.

He has been waiting for the returns for more than a year and should be the happiest man in the local music fraternity.

Ncube encouraged musicians to contact her association and ascertain when to collect royalties in their respective batches.

“Musicians should come and ask when their batches are due. We are not giving money at random and people should be aware of our criteria. We have offices in all provinces and musicians should go to our offices for inquiries,” Ncube said.