Mcinga defends plea for funds

Legendary Eastern Cape gospel artist Lusanda Mcinga says she is not bothered by the backlash and ridicule on social media that greeted her three-minute video pleading poverty.

Instead, she said, she spoke from the heart.

The video appeared on Facebook on Monday.

She revealed she was struggling financially and appealed for assistance to record and release a new album.

The Dispatch reported on Tuesday that Mcinga, known for her Lusanda Spiritual Group and her equally iconic guitarplaying talent, said the Covid19 pandemic had hit her hard in the pocket and in her health.

She revealed that the bank had repossessed all her cars.

When a Dispatch team visited her home in the Marhambeni informal settlement in Mthatha on Tuesday, a frail-looking Mcinga was unfazed that some people were questioning the video, and by extension, her motives. “I made a video and told my story and even said whoever wants to laugh and ridicule me, now it’s their chance. I don’t mind.”

Mcinga is the mother of gospel star Betusile Mcinga, who is riding high with his hit single Ngena Noah.

Some social media users who reacted to the story questioned why Betusile did not pay for his mother’s next album.

Others said he was making a killing. But his mother defended him and her other children, saying they were doing everything they could to help her.

She told the Dispatch she had last performed live in 2020. Her last album, Mabaphil’abantu, was released in 2017.

This was the first time there had been a five-year gap between her albums.

Fans were asking her when the next one would arrive.

She had a burning ambition to release an album, much like how she felt the first time, before 1995, when she used to perform at funerals and village gatherings, and people would approach her to ask if she had an album they could buy.

In 2017 she raised funds for an album, but she could not do so now. She said her pastor, Anele Heli, invited her to perform in Cape Town recently, and she told him of her ambition to record another album and asked for his help.

Heli suggested the video. The bank account number of a trusted congregant was included in the video. Mcinga said she needed at least R50,000 just to book a recording studio.

She was disappointed her son had had to take criticism because of her video.