Legendary maskandi group Izingane Zoma has vowed to no longer take part in the Impucuzeko Maskandi Festival, the biggest maskandi event in South Africa, after receiving bad treatment from the organisers at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban last weekend.
Thandoluni Phungula, Tholakele Ngobese, Busani Khuzwayo and Shobeni Khuzwayo have been performing for the past 30 years.
They are said to be furious with festival organiser Xolani Mcineka after they were scheduled to perform at 9.30pm but were made to wait until 6am, and then told they were not scheduled to perform.
Izingane Zoma manager Shobeni Khuzwayo said they were humiliated.
“The group was meant to perform at 9.30pm but the MC [Tshatha Ngobe] told us that Izingane Zoma was not part of the line-up. Why did they book us in the first place when they knew that we were not part of their plans? It’s a shame because there are people who came to see us on stage. Every artist that is booked at this event has their own followers. I’m not going to dwell much on what will happen in the future, but you must know that we are not happy about how the group was treated,” he said.
Mcineka said: “We profusely apologise to all our artists who could not perform due to time constraints. We have also discussed the matter with them and confirmed that no artist was deliberately ill-treated at any point at the event.”
Ngobe also extended his apology to other artists who attended but did not perform.
“Artists are in pain that they never performed and it is understandable. It is not like someone is fighting with them but time was the factor. I was hurt too because those are the women we respect in the maskandi industry.
“I’ll consult with Mcineka and come back to you. Indeed, it was unfortunate,” said Ngobe.
Pleas for forgiveness fell on deaf ears as Khuzwayo said it was impossible that Mcineka had no knowledge of what was happening.
“What is more painful is that Izingane Zoma played a big role in making sure that maskandi music is where it is today. It looks like every time we are invited to the event the aim is to humiliate Izingane Zoma.
“We are not beefing with anyone but the treatment we are getting is showing us that there is an agenda against us, and we fail to understand why,” said a fuming Khuzwayo.
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