Maskandi and gospel artists are fuming over non-payment by the KwaZulu-Natal department of sports, arts and culture.
Scores of maskandi artists performed at the Impucuzeko Maskandi Festival at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on July 30 while the gospel artists performed at Kufeziwe Gospel Celebration at Umhlathuze Sports complex on April 17.
Maskandi artist Dlubheke, who performed at the Impucuzeko Maskandi Festival, said his pleas for payment have fallen on deaf ears.
“I should’ve been paid by now. Our verbal agreement was that I’d be paid immediately after the event,” said Dlubheke.
“A week later I contacted the event organisers and they promised to pay on the following day, but that never happened. Since then, it’s been empty promises. I don’t know what to do anymore.”
Another maskandi artist Ithwasa Lekhansela said: “I performed live at Moses Mabhida and I still haven’t been paid. I’ve made queries but there’s no clear indication of when I’ll get paid. What makes it worse is that I owe my band members.”
Kufeziwe Gospel Celebration event organiser Mu Nngcolosi confirmed that all the artists who performed at the event have not been paid.
“Our role was to hire service providers and book the artists for the event. The KZN department of sports, arts and culture’s responsibility was to pay the service providers and artists,” said Ngcolosi.
“Unfortunately, the department has failed to pay them. It’s been three months already and we don’t know why they have not been paid. Now the artists and the service providers are blaming us for non-payment.”
Impucuzeko Maskandi Festival event organiser Xolani Mcineka said he has enquired at the department. “The Department had promised to pay the artists on August 15. I’ve been making queries and I keep getting promises. Now I don’t know what to tell the artists,” said Mcineka.
The spokesperson for the department, Phathisa Mfuyo, was not available for comment at the time of publishing. Her phone rang unanswered and she also failed to respond to text messages.
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