kagablog

A badly organised Festival and insufficient security on the French island of Mayotte leaves kwaito star Mandoza with a head scar……… flying stones, bricks and chairs endangered the lives of Thandiswa, Busi Mhlongo and other South African artists.

Friday night on the 24th of October Thandiswa Mazwai and her artists went off stage when soon after a local youth attacked Mandoza in what should be a restricted backstage area. Mandoza, who had to defended himself was soon attacked by more youth and suddenly chairs and loose bricks and rocks from within the stadium started flying endangering the lives of many South African artists including Busi Mhlongo, Thandiswa, DJ Castro, Mabi Thobejane and some 20 accompanying tour musicians. Tour organiser Lenny van den Berg from Peak Performances in Cape Town fast reaction saved her and a friend from a serious injury when she managed to narrowly escape a huge brick by diving under the stage. Husband Rouvanne van den Berg endured an injury to his hand and Mandoza¹s brothers (who defended other South African artists from a fast gathering crowd of a young and very angry mob armed with stones and bricks) came out bruised. Whilst the riot took place the organiser made a phone call to sack the festival security staff but never even bothered to issue an official apology to the South African team !

What could have been an extremely serious attack on South African artists followed a week of chaos and bad organisation, lack of communication, hostesses and assistants who don¹t speak English leaving the strain of the most difficult translation- and negotiation tasks to multilingual MELT 2000 label owner Robert Trunz who accompanied his artists Amampondo, Castro B and Mabi Thobejane.

Although the festival was fully sponsored and financed by the French government the tour organiser Lenny van den Berg had to delay her departure by 3 days trying to recoup outstanding artist performance fees and cost incurred. Days of difficult negotiations with what one would consider indifferent civil servants Lenny and her team left without being paid a remainder of over 200¹000 R. Attempts to get moneys recouped and to meet the festival organiser were unsuccessful and 3 hours of waiting for the local deputy president resulted in being told to apply for an appointment!

When Peak Performances finally the island without being paid they met disappointed members of Mocambiquan group Timbila Muzimba who also remained unpaid and were sent off told that payment would follow in two weeks. Mayotte¹s civil servants are far away and so is the metropol Paris ­ let¹s see when and if the money comes through ­ watch this space.