ORGANISERS of Miss Tourism Zimbabwe, Miss Tourism Trust (MTZ) have accused songstress, Selmor Mtukudzi of being unprofessional for rushing to disclose their contractual disputes to the media before exhausting internal remedies.
BY WINSTONE ANTONIO
Speaking to NewsDay, the trust’s spokesperson, Alson Darikayi, who had for the past two days not been responding to calls and texts, said Selmor’s demands were news to them and the letter of demand “delivered” to newspapers was of no concern.
“We note with concern the unprofessional manner in which some artistes we had contracted to work with on Miss Tourism Zimbabwe have gone about to send misplaced messages to the public. If she [Selmor] is owed, she knows where to find us,” he said.
“Miss Tourism Zimbabwe is a corporate institution, which operates with very clear systems, processes and procedures.
“We do not resolve grievances, if there are any, through the media. Our culture at MTZ is that we engage our stakeholders, who may have issues or grievances, if any, and we are very willing to engage anyone who may have issues.”
Selmor claimed $3 250 in performance fees after she was contracted to perform at last year’s Miss Tourism Zimbabwe pageant held at the Harare International Conference Centre, although she did not get to perform.
The matter came to light after Selmor wrote a letter of demand to MTZ through her lawyers, Farai Nyamayaro Law Chambers, giving the pageant organisers seven days to settle the debt or face legal action.
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Through her lawyer, Selmor alleges that the trust reneged on a written contract (dated August 22) just before the show started, as they advised her that she no longer had a slot on the schedule.
The law firm said Selmor had spent money in preparing to perform at the show and was entitled to the fees and the trust had promised to pay after the show despite the non-performance.
Apart from Selmor, the trust is also reportedly embroiled in a nasty dispute with some local designers, who dressed the models at the pageant, who accused the latter of failing to pay them as per agreement.
Darikayi could neither confirm nor deny that some designers were yet to be paid, saying they had engaged them, as a way of giving them exposure to showcase their designs at such a big pageant, not to make money.
“Our arrangement with these designers was that we pay them two weeks before the event and we did that, but there are some designers, who later felt that they should get more than the initially agreed fee and they demanded the money on the day of the pageant,” he said.
