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Khuxxman

Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent
AFTER glowing reviews and being commended by people around the country and beyond, it has emerged that artistes that performed at the Bulawayo Arts Awards allegedly will not be paid a cent.

Writing on his Facebook Timeline yesterday, Khuxxman lashed out at the BAA organisers over non-payment of performance fees that he was promised.

“So everything was budgeted for except for our performance fees. Some of you guys should stop enriching yourselves by using artists. One of the days things will get physical, yibumbulu lobu elibenzayo. Enough is enough I want my money,” fumed Khuxxman.

Asked to clarify his statement, Khuxxman — who did not disclose his performance fee — said he was contacted a week before the awards by the organisers asking him to perform at the ceremony.

“I was talking to Nkululeko Nkala and Saimon Mambazo who contacted me to perform on the night a week before. After that I asked about performance fees and they said they were under pressure and we would talk about it. And that was it. Until the day of the awards there was no communication from them,” he said.

Quizzed as to why he was seen on stage and whether he made the organisers sign a contract, Khuxxman said he did not make them sign a contract after he succumbed to pressure to perform.

“I had gone to the show to watch on the night. However, the whole week I hadn’t rehearsed with them. They came to me and told me that they had already rehearsed my part for the show. After some persuading I went on stage with the hope that I would get paid. The next day I texted Mambazo and he has not responded,” said Khuxxman.

“I didn’t make them sign any contract for performance fees as I thought they had in mind that they wanted to honour artistes.”

One of the organisers, Nkala said he was not dealing with artistes and Khuxxman was not being truthful in his involvement as Mambazo handled the artistes.

Mambazo said there was no artiste who was promised money.

“None of the artisties performing at the BAAs were ever promised money. It was done in the spirit of giving. I don’t remember promising anyone money and yes I dealt with artistes and I haven’t ignored anyone. If I have it’s been an oversight on my part,” he said.

Sandra Ndebele agreed with Mambazo saying they were doing it for Bulawayo and there was no agreement between them and the organisers.

“I can only speak for myself and there was no agreement for payment of performance fees between myself and the organisers. I thought we were doing it for Bulawayo. The only thing we were told was the awards have a cash prize and that all the nominees for the Song of the Year award were performing, nothing about monies,” said Ndebele.

Rapper Asaph, who also performed at the awards, said he knew at the back of his mind that he was doing it for free.

“I kind of went there knowing that I won’t get paid. I didn’t even bring it up because I felt it was an opportunity for us to showcase our talent and build something for the future,” said Asaph. — @bonganinkunzi