RENOWNED South African musician and Dalom Kids frontman Dan Tshanda, who pledged to donate R250 000 and a recording deal to some of the winners at the inaugural Skyz Metro FM Music Awards has not honoured his pledge one year on, NewsDay Life & Style can reveal.
BY SINDISO DUBE
Bulawayo’s first commercial radio station on Friday last week hosted its second awards ceremony at the Large City Hall, at a time when the winners from the inaugural edition were still awaiting Tshanda’s promises.
At the first edition held on December 21 last year, Tshanda said he would offer the winner recording time and also pledged R250 000 towards the development of the musicians’ careers.
One of the inaugural winners, Clement Magwaza, who walked away with the outstanding dance song award, told NewsDay Life & Style recently that promoters should desist from making fake promises to artistes at awards ceremonies or album launches.
“I was promised money and also recording time, but I am yet to receive anything from Dan Tshanda, I last heard of him on the night of the awards, when he made his promise before the whole of Bulawayo,” he said.
Skyz Metro FM station manager Godwin Phiri echoed Magwaza’s sentiments.
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“As a station, we have not received any communication from Dan. We can confirm that the artiste is yet to receive what he was promised. We have tried to follow up in two encounters, but nothing has materialised,” he said.
“We hope people will not make pledges that they won’t honour in the future, starting from this year’s awards.”
Tshanda, however, blamed local artistes for not complying with the conditions attached to the pledge.
“Yes, I pledged to help Bulawayo artistes, but the whole process didn’t go well since they (artistes) didn’t show up. I waited for them to come to me whilst I was in Zimbabwe, but only one artiste came through,” he told NewsDay.
“My idea was to have more artistes to compete and get the best out of those who we will work with. We are talking big money here, and we couldn’t just give the only artiste who came through without any form of competition. However, I am willing to work with them. If they come to me, we work.”
