Kalawa shows — Who benefits?

Mbongeni Msimanga and Vusumuzi Dube Sunday Leisure Reporters
THE Kalawa homecoming show has come and gone. As usual, the show lived up to its billing as and it has earned the tag of Bulawayo’s biggest entertainment shows of the year. And it was well covered by the media with all kinds of superlatives employed to describe the show. No doubt South African artistes left the crowd asking for more. Bonginkosi “Zola” Dhlamini evidently stole the show and took his fans down memory lane with songs that kept people on their feet. His Don’t Cry, Ntombazana songs definitely added flavour and interest to this year’s homecoming show.

Not forgetting the man who made headlines in international and South African media for allegedly raping a 17-year-old, Sipho “Brickz” Ndlovu, who also had a share of cheers from the crowd, and as usual took his fans down memory lane with his hit song “Sweety My Baby”.

Strong fans of his music could not get enough, as he put up a splendid performance.
The local acts too did not disappoint. They performed far much better than last year’s. Talk of Defined House, Skiva and DJ Sbago, Kwabatsha Generalz whose performances were polished although there is more room for improved standards.

Ezra Tshisa Sibanda was, however, left to do the job alone on stage after Babongile Skhonjwa got involved in an accident that left him hospitalised.
But the question still remains on how the Oskido-led delegation continue having a bumper harvest in a land that local artistes liken to a dead donkey? True to this, it goes without saying that the Bulawayo entertainment market is now a bank to the Mzansi artistes who just come to withdraw leaving nothing for Zimbabwe.

So true is the fact that an estimated 5 000 people paid $10 gate charges and attended the show.
As usual, Oskido just capitalised on the festive spending and the trick worked. They cashed in on the show much to the envy of our own local acts who were left licking their lips in envy wondering where exactly they were going wrong in the Bulawayo showbiz industry which to them has proved impossible to milk.

Reports have suggested that Oskido went away a millionaire (in Rand of course), money which won’t even assist the nation but will be channelled into our neighbour’s economy.

No doubt the show will remain engraved in many people’s minds not only for the entertainment that they brought but for the bankruptcy too.
It managed with so much ease to set standards that will be difficult to surpass especially in Bulawayo where South African music commands such a large following mostly because of the striking similarities in lingo and style.

Over the years, the flamboyant Kalawa Crew has always brought manpower even for the oddest job from South Africa as if to say there are no able bodied people in Zimbabwe.

They brought their bouncers, bartenders and cashiers leaving locals with no role to play at the show.
The trend has grown so much over the years with nothing being done to avert the situation, with Zimbabweans only being pacified by music which only make them dig dip into their pockets at ease, contributing to the development of foreign music – leaving their own local talent and economy with nothing to cheer.

A lot of questions to this day remain unanswered – with the high delegation of South Africans coming to service the show, either as bouncers, cashiers or bartenders questions arise whether they have work permits to carry out their “ripping service” while other Zimbabweans continue to languish in the doldrums of poverty? Should we continue to watch while we have entertainers ripping us off all in the name of entertainment? What are local bodies such as Zimra doing to restrict such tendencies?

Shockingly, beer prices were at a sky rocket price – a bottle of Castle Lite was being charged at an awful $4, which is close to three times the normal price. Ironically, in South Africa with that amount one can get a six-pack of the brand.

Responding to questions texted to her, National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) spokesperson Catherine Mthombeni said the promoter of a show contracts the artistes and both parties agree in terms of payment.

She, however, said international artistes had no right to peg prices that they wanted and it was the duty of the promoter to charge prices.
“Basically the promoter contracts the artistes and both parties agree in terms of payment. Please note the international artistes are not the ones who decide on the entry charges, it is the promoter who is the organiser of the show who decides how much the entry charge should be as well as incur all the cost related to the show,” she said.

Show co-ordinator Vusumuzi Siqalaba could not be reached for comment.
The question that begs for an answer is who is to blame, should we blame Oskido, a businessman, who has identified a space to boost his million rand empire, the local artistes who have failed to challenge this dominance, controlling bodies like Zimra, NACZ and the local authority for allowing such a rip-off to take place while they sit on their laurels, local promoters who have failed to challenge this rip-off or the locals who continue to shun their local acts and prefer to part with their hard earned cash to attend the show?

Over and above all while the show is show in the city’s entertainment calendar, one fact we can never reject is that the show is a mere rip-off, which makes no economic sense to the country.