Cal_Vin at centre of financial battle
RENOWNED local artiste Cal_Vin has found himself stuck in the middle of a monetary battle involving two organisations that put together his Victoria Falls show, with one party Brown Sugar Bar allegedly trying to sneak out of paying the rapper.
According to Cal_Vin, events leading to his performance ran smoothly but conflict arose when he had performed when one of the organisers of the event would not pay up.
“The show was put together by Bulawayo’s Veneto Events and Victoria Falls’ Brown Sugar Bar. Everything leading to the performance went well but my payment was delayed. Veneto paid my deposit as soon as I got to Vic Falls as was agreed and the outstanding balance was supposed to be settled by Arnold Maka of Brown Sugar Bar. The guy was nowhere to be found,” Cal_Vin said.
After fruitlessly waiting for Maka to show up, Veneto had to settle the sum owed to Cal_Vin by Brown Sugar.
“My departure was delayed because my team and I were waiting to be paid. We were getting impatient as we had to get back home and the Veneto team had to cover the difference from their own pockets,” narrated the rapper.
Prior to this incident, Maka had pulled a disappearing act on Cal_Vin and his team when they first arrived at Vic Falls. The agreement was that Maka would collect them from their drop off point, accommodate them and provide food for them. However, Maka collected them, took them to a lodge, promised to return with their meals and allegedly disappeared into the night. Cal_ Vin and his team had to cater for their own meals and Maka failed to reimburse them afterwards.
Contacted for clarity on the matter, a representative from Veneto, Victor Sibanda said, “According to our contract, we had agreed before that Brown Sugar pay supporting artistes as well as their staff and provide alcohol. We were supposed to share Cal_Vin’s costs at fifty-fifty. We were going to have the gate takings and they would have the returns from drinks and snacks.”
Sibanda said contrary to their agreement, in the middle of the show, Maka came to them, demanding that they pay one of the supporting artistes. The following day, Maka was not forthcoming when it came to paying Cal_Vin, coming up with excuses for not bringing the money upfront. “We paid Cal-Vin from our company coffers and Arnold said we should come back to his bar for what he owed us. We went to the bar and he did not show up. We called his father and he said he would fix the issue but he also disappeared on us. Both their phones have been unavailable since then,” Sibanda added. When contacted by Sunday Life, Maka said that the whole thing was one huge misunderstanding. “I think the guys at Veneto are blowing this thing out of proportion. We have not yet sat down to discuss gate takings and that is a meeting we are going to have whenever the Veneto team are ready. It is absurd that they are saying I owe them money. If anything they owe me close to $300 for gate takings. However, we are still working on it like I said,” Maka said.