PAY BACK MY R30,000
South African artist in hot soup for breach of contract
A SOUTH African celebrity, Prince Benza of the Ganama fame, was by Tuesday stuck in Botswana after court ordered him to surrender his passport to a local sheriff.
In an urgent court application filed by a local promoter, Bakang Radikara, Prince Benza became another South African artist to face the wrath of the law for failing to honour a contractual agreement to perform at a local event over the festive season. It has become increasingly popular for South African artists to fail to turn up after they have been paid with no or little explanation. Artists such as DJ Maphorisa, Zahara and Heavy K have in the past pulled no shows for events.
While allegedly ignoring the local promoter, Benza made an appearance in Botswana over the weekend and the promoter pounced with the court order.
In a matter before Village Magistrate, Lindiwe Makgoro, it was directed that among others Prince Benza should surrender his passport to a Deputy Sheriff pending the outcome of the case of breach of contract against him.
“Alternatively, that the 1st respondent (Prince Benza) pay into court as security an amount to be determined by the clerk of court,” reads the order.
Catching the promoter for a side interview on the sidelines of court to explain what has led to the court case against the South African star, Radikara said he had booked Prince Benza to perform at his show in Mogobane.
“He was supposed to headline my event called MOG Reflector Festival back on December 31st. He did not show up after confirming he would come as we met our obligation. We paid him R30,000 as his booking fee,” he said.
Radikara further explained that due to his nonappearance, there were violent protests from revellers, who had paid to see Prince Benza.
“We were being accused of fraud. People were throwing bottles of alcohol on stage and a lot of it spilled on the sound equipment we had hired. It was chaotic. Since then, we have been trying to get our refund since there was no clear explanation as to why he did not come and we were being sent from pillar to post. We have been trying to get our money back since January,” Radikara said.
“All we need is our money back. Can we just get our refund back. We had to apply for this because he is a foreigner and we knew we would never get him if he left the country,” he said.