An Eastern Cape impresario has partly blamed house music DJ Oscar Mbo’s Oscar award-winning diva tendencies for the failure of his music festival in East London in May.
Speaking to Sunday World, music promoter Luzuko Khohli said he paid one of Mzansi’s most sought-after DJs, real name Oscar Mbongeni Ndlovu, R55 000 to come and serenade the queens and kings of East London at his event dubbed The Road to Afrika Unite Cultural Event.
The jamboree, he said, was a build-up event to his annual carnival called Afrika Unite International Cultural Festival, billed for September 21.
Khohli said that he booked a flight from Johannesburg to East London for Ndlovu and his management team. “I booked flights and everything, and then he told me to change his flight to an earlier time because he had another gig in Johannesburg,” Khohli said.
He said when he inquired with the booking agents, they told him there were no more flights available in East London.
“They then asked me to change the booking and book a flight to Port Elizabeth; mind you, I’m paying R3 200 per person per single flight.
“Fine, I booked the flight. They then demanded that I pay them R15 000 extra from the agreed performance fee just because they would be travelling by road from East London to Port Elizabeth to catch a flight to Joburg,” he said.
Khohli said he tried to negotiate with them to bring the price down, but they would not budge.
“I made every effort to negotiate but they threatened not to show up for my show if I didn’t pay them the R15k.
“Remember, this artist is not providing me with any value that would enable me to enter their market.
“To cut the story short, I had to pay the artist an additional R15k and transport the artist to Port Elizabeth just to protect my brand,” he said.
Khohli also lamented that when he asked Ndlovu and his team to share the posters on their feeds, they refused.
In simple terms, said Khohli, he asked them to post his gig on their feeds but they told him they could only do that if he paid them an extra R40 000.
“They couldn’t even share the poster on their feeds,” he said.
Khohli said that the event was a damp squib and that he did not make a profit from it.
“To be honest, we did not make money from this show, and I partly blame Oscar Mbo’s management for the failure of this show,” he said.
Despite treating him shabbily, he harbours no resentment towards Ndlovu.
“I think he is a nice guy, but his management team is not handling his business affairs properly,” Khohli said.
