LOCAL artistes who performed at the highly publicised Independence Dance Concert headlined by South African house music group Uhuru held on Independence eve at Belgravia Sports Club in Harare have blasted organisers of the show over poor treatment.
BY WINSTONE ANTONIO OWN CORRESPONDENT
After putting up sterling performances as opening acts, local artistes were left stranded for almost three hours at the venue as they were kept waiting for their payments.
Award-winning hip hop rapper Tatea Da MC (born Tatenda Nziramasanga) took to social network Facebook to express his anger over the matter which he later confirmed to NewsDay. “When will local artistes be treated with respect? There was a cat-and-mouse game between artistes, stage manager and anyone who was believed to be the organiser because the person who was assigned to do the payments had disappeared,” Tatea Da MC said.
“I was hurt when I saw about 18 dancers waiting in vain for transport looking like street kids yet they were the ones who made the fans scream before Uhuru took to the stage.” Tatea Da MC said local promoters need to be concerned about the welfare of artistes. At the concert we were celebrating the Independence of Zimbabwe from oppressors and to my surprise we were treated like those that fought the Chimurenga before independence,” he said.
“As the service providers I believe at one point you once experienced such a situation and understand how painful it is to be treated in such a way. These artistes are your little brothers and sisters, your friends, your fellow countrymen, and you treat them like this? I am sure Uhuru will say it was a great show and Zimbabwean hospitality is the best, yet it is not the case with local acts.”
Efforts to get a comment from DJ T Bass (Tavona Gukuta), who was the event organiser together with others, were fruitless as their mobile phones were not answered.
This is not the first time promoters taking local artistes for a ride failing to honour contractual agreements. Recently DJ Ohms (real name Lazarus Munetsi), who was the promoter of the Zimdancehall Meets Hip-Hop gig held in Harare Gardens, vanished without paying the artistes citing that the show had been poorly attended so he could not pay them.
