Blacks move to redress performance arrears
Having come under fire over their failure to honour bookings, the country’s celebrated reggae group the Black Missionaries have committed to clear a backlog of performances that have been pending.
This follows a new complainant by the owner of Joburg Club in Mzimba, Dumisani Jere, who claims his reputation has been battered in the district for a show that failed to take place four times this year despite paying the reggae band a booking fee of K350 000 (about $526).
Jere claims to have lost an additional sum of K600 000 (about $902) in advertisement, security and other expenses.
The two parties, however, have since agreed to hold the show on April 23 when the Blacks are expected to tour Kasungu on April 22 and Mzuzu Tourist Lodge on April 24 2016. The Blacks are expected to foot all the bills.
Said Jere: “Initially, the show was expected to take place on January 2 2016 after paying the deposit last year. We postponed it to February 6 before postponing it again to March 5.
But in an interview on Wednesday, Black Missionaries leader Anjiru Fumulani said they are committed to honouring the show.
He explained that they failed to honour their commitment because they could not travel to Mzimba for a single show.
Anjiru said this time around the show is on as the band has lined up a tour of the Northern Region where they will foot all the bills, including Jere’s failed show.
“We don’t usually travel all the way from Blantyre to the Northern Region for a single show. It wouldn’t really make business sense. But this time around, we have lined up a number of shows in the North and Mzimba is one of our destinations,” he said.
This issue comes against the background that the reggae group were dragged to court by Dwangwa Club for failing to refund a sum of K1.2 million (about $1 800) in performance fees. n
