LAM to boycott Marula festival 2022
Sekhukhune
Limpopo Artists Movement (LAM) has taken a resolution to boycott annual Marula festival 2022.
This comes after the movement accuses the festival organisers together with its service providers of inhuman treatment and overlooking local artists.
They claimed that service providers forces local artists to accept an offer of R10 000 as a performance fee.
But the provincial chairperson of the LAM, Mphoza Mashabela, said they wouldn’t allow responsible service providers to undermine and take an advantage to the local artists.
Mashabela said this only happens to the local artists cited that national artists are being offered better payments.
“How can you book artists and instruct them to take an offer of R10 000 as a Performance fee. What about other fees such as transport and accommodation?” asked Mashabela.
He describes alleged unfair treatment as an insult to the musician, adding that they would not compromise or condone the exploitation of their artists.
“We can’t allow this kind of behavior to continue in our province. It seems like the only artists who are getting fair treatment from service providers are national artists.
“Our members got booked but they were told to agree with the given offer or else they will be replaced. And that made us to believe that our artists are being oppressed and sidelined in this festival,” explained Mashabela.
He outlined one of the roles the movement plays is to represent the interest of its members without compromising their dignity.
Moreover the movement said attempt to negotiate the price fee with responsible stakeholders failed.
Therefore they are calling on the Limpopo Premier Stan Mathabatha to intervene in the matter. They added that how do they expect locals to support their event if their local artists are not given the same support.
“Our members made it very clear that the R10 000 fee offered is peanuts compared to the service they have to provide. We however understand that Covid 19 has negatively impacted the industry,” said Mphoza.
According to LAM its artists will remain poor should the government continue to overlook, undermine and mistreat its members.
“This Marula festival is useless to local artists as it benefits only national artists. Let the service providers suggest the R10 000 pay fee to national artists and see if they would even consider performing,” he concluded.
