Zimpapers Logo

Tonderai Zvimba, Showbiz Reporter
Award-winning poet Tinashe Tafirenyika took to social media last week to allege that promoter and owner of Creative Media Works, Hector Chikowore, had not paid her money for performances.

The Bulawayo-based artiste posted on Facebook that Chikowore also owed other Bulawayo artistes money.

“I did work for Creative Media Works some time last year. I dealt with this guy, we agreed on a performance fee. Hector started telling me stories about the money, his phone being unreachable at times, giving me a fraction of the money at a time, ignoring my calls, tossing me around between members of his team. I recently found out other poets who had taken part haven’t gotten any of their money and it is not the first time this guy is duping Bulawayo artists. Apparently some of his former employees have been unpaid for over a year. As an act of love in this New Year, I’m warning you not to work with this guy if you enjoy getting paid.”

Efforts to get through to Chikowore for his side of the story were fruitless as his cell phone was unreachable yesterday.

However, he had a heated exchange with Tafirenyika in the comments section on her Facebook post, threatening to sue her.

His comments have since been deleted.

Chronicle Showbiz spoke to Tafirenyika who said the show for which payment is overdue was held at the end of last year.

“So I know Hector from outside the arts. We grew up in the same neighborhood and I’ve always had respect for him. He approached me some time in November to perform at an event. I was a bit reluctant because I had a number of events that time of the year and I had a lot of pressure. He offered an amount; I said it was reasonable and he paid half before the event. I sent the money back saying I don’t think I’ll be able to perform there for various reasons but he managed to convince me. We were supposed to sign a contract on the day of the performance but we didn’t manage to; the agreement about the payment was however written. We were corresponding via social media so I proceeded to do the performance because I knew if anything went wrong I at least had that as proof of our terms of engagement,” she said.

The poet said in the following days Hector’s phone became unreachable or would ring without him picking up.

She eventually went to his office and he told her that he had delegated someone to pay her and he said he thought she had been paid.

He then gave her half the fee they had agreed on and said the rest would follow.

Tafirenyika said she mentioned to some artiste friends how Hector was being “difficult” and they shared their encounters with him.

Tafirenyika said she is considering reporting him to the police.

“I’m still deciding on whether to bring in the police for the outstanding balance; not necessarily for the money but as a matter of principle,” she said.