Controversial poet Ntsiki Mazwai has been slapped with a letter of demand instructing her to retract and apologise after claims that music executive Vusi Leeuw ruined her career.
Mazwai was given until today to remove remarks she made on social media platform X (formerly known as Twitter) alleging that Leeuw, her former manager, ruined her career.
Following the death of Zahara on Monday evening, Mazwai jumped on a trend where fans were calling out music industry executives for exploiting the Loliwe hitmaker.
In her string of posts, Mazwai alleged that she too was a victim and that she had been exploited by Leeuw who “destroyed” her career.
Albums dumped
She alleged that Leeuw did not do anything for her career and only printed copies of her CD, which “he could not sell but dumped at his offices when he ran away for failing to pay rent”.
She tagged Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture Zizi Kodwa in her posts, asking him to intervene and get her justice.
“Guys, the only thing that man paid for was to print copies. It wasn’t even the printing of Masters. It was copies,” she wrote.
“Then he went to the warehouse without me and took my stock. Years later, I get a call from Bassline saying they have my stock. He had an office there.”
In another post, she alleged that Leeuw left copies of her CD at his offices in Bassline, Newtown, because he could not pay rent and was evicted.
“He couldn’t pay rent and he ran away. When they cleaned out his office, they found my stock and called me to come and fetch it,” she said.
Letter of demand
On Wednesday, Leeuw slapped Mazwai with a letter of demand, asking her to retract her statements and apologise to him.
In a letter which was served by his lawyers, Rudolph Baloyi Inc, Leeuw denied the allegations and threated a lawsuit.
Reads the letter: “These allegations are false, malicious and defamatory. They diminish the longstanding reputation of our client in the entertainment industry, which he has worked tirelessly to establish in a period spanning well over 20 years.”
The letter also states that Mazwai’s intention is to defame Leeuw to her over 400 000 followers on X and more than 11 subscribers on YouTube, where she also shared a video talking about the matter.
“Our client vehemently denies all the allegations you have brought forward against him and will readily defend his name, business, practice and reputation.”
By noon on Friday, Mazwai had not retracted nor apologised to Leeuw.
When approached for comment, Mazwai blue-ticked Sunday World’s request for comment. The story will be updated when her comment has been received.
