Grammy Award winner Nomcebo Zikode has lost her legal case against Open Mic Productions.
And as if that were not enough, the court also ordered Zikode to deliver two albums to Open Mic before she is released from her contract.
This is contained in a Gauteng High Court judgment handed down on 9 May.
Zikode and Open Mic have been embroiled in a legal battle since 2022.
The court highlighted that the root of their dispute was the ownership of the hit song Jerusalema whether it was co-composed by Zikode and Kgaogelo “Master KG” Moagi or solely by Moagi.
However, the court was not asked to rule on that issue. Instead, Zikode brought the case over the song Bayethe, which ultimately won her a Grammy Award.
At the time, she asked the court to compel Open Mic to comply with its accounting obligations. These included disclosures related to tallying “income arising from synchronisation of the sound recordings, income from bookings, brand or endorsement deals, physical sales of Jerusalema, and information on how much royalty Master KG was receiving”.
On 15 December 2022, Zikode and Open Mic reached a settlement, which was later made an order of court.
The settlement agreement reads, in part: “The parties have agreed that Nomcebo Nkwanyana, through her company Emazulwini Productions, will enter into a 50/50 joint venture agreement within sixty (60) days of the effective date of this agreement in relation to future recordings. The future recordings will be released by the joint venture via Africori. The parties agree that Africori will act as a conduit facilitating the interaction between the two parties.”
Almost a year later, Zikode returned to court, alleging that Open Mic had failed to comply with its accounting obligations.
She argued that the agreement to enter into a 50/50 joint venture with Open Mic was not legally enforceable, and that she no longer wished to fulfil it.
Her request was rejected. The court said: “The Honourable Court can accept that everything Open Mic ought to have provided to the applicants has been provided. A link to access Open Mic’s accounting records was sent to the applicants. The information pertaining to the synchronisation of the sound recordings was appended to the answering affidavit.
“Zikode has made an agreement to enter into a 50/50 joint venture. This Court cannot declare that Zikode is not bound by the obligation she agreed to. Such a declaration would contradict the constitutionally valid common law principle that agreements must be kept.”
Open Mic Productions boss, Lionel Jamela, said he had always believed they would win the case.
“I made Nomcebo. Today, she’s a millionaire because of the investment I made in her. Unfortunately, she had other intentions—she wanted to steal the Jerusalema song, but she failed.
“When I met her, no one believed in her, but I took her under my wing and made her an international brand. I built her. I spent millions on her, but she turned against me.
“Despite this case, she still needs to give me two albums before she can do whatever she wants. Otherwise, she’ll be in contempt of court. I don’t want just any albums, but I want commercial ones. The first album should be released in 2026, and the second in 2027. So she must stop, we’ve got work to do
“I will also be conducting a full audit on her to ascertain how much she owes me.”
Questions were sent to Zikode, but she had not responded at the time of publication.
