The adversity heralding Burna Boy’s upcoming performance in South Africa has got worse as a group of artistes there have petitioned the South African government over his invitation with a view to stopping him.
it was AKA and a few other people who had been sounding a note of war to Burna Boy, following the Nigerian act’s outburst during the recent xenophobia attacks.
Now, the musicians, under the aegis of Tshwane Collective, have sent a petition to the their minister of arts and culture, kicking against the inclusion of Burna Boy in the ‘Africa Unite’ concert scheduled for 23 and 24 November.
The Africans Unite concerts is described as a response to recent xenophobia in the country.
It is organised by Play Network Africa, based in Nigeria, in partnership with Phambili Media SA and appears to enjoy the support of South Africa’s department of arts and culture.
The agitators said: “Whoever may have deemed that the country needs a PR exercise of this nature would have done so largely as a result of the callous, misleading and unwarranted incitement by this very artist. Not only did he spread falsehoods through his extensive platform, he literally incited violence and hate.
The country’s art and culture ministry has, however, distanced itself from the concert, saying it knew nothing about it.
It said, “The Department of Sports, Arts and Culture wishes to dispel the untrue information currently being spread on social media, that it is funding the Africans Unite Concert featuring the artist known as Burna Boy. It is unfortunate that the department’s logo was erroneously used on the poster advertising the event,” spokesperson Asanda Magaqa told TshisaLIVE.
He explained that it had not allocated or granted funding for the event. “The department wishes to reiterate that it has not allocated or granted any funding to the event in question and any reports to the contrary are entirely false.”
Organised by Play Network Africa, based in Nigeria, in partnership with Phambili Media SA, the concert will feature, along with Burna Boy, artistes such as Kwesa and Jidenna. The first concert will hold at Hillcrest Quarry in Cape Town on 23 November and the second at Sun Arena, Time Square in Pretoria.
