The Sunday Mail
Mtandazo Dube Bolt Cutter
I was tempted to unleash my blades at those that have been criticising what has been called Killer T’s mutilation of the English language during a recent BBC interview.
I also intended unpack the near fist fight between Professor Fred Zindi and Transit Crew lead singer J Farai at the Bob Marley commemorations last Saturday, among many other hot matters – but I have a pressing bread and butter issue which cannot wait. So I’ll let the aforementioned issues pass, hard as it may be to ignore them. On June 1 every year, the Zimbabwe Music Rights Association (Zimura) disburses funds it would have collected on behalf of musicians from broadcasters. In slightly over a week, that process will begin.
Things have changed, there are more radio stations churning out different types of music 24/7 than in years gone by. From national commercial stations like Star FM and Zi FM to provincial radio stations like Diamond FM, Nyaminyami, YaFM, Gogogoi FM, Capitalk 100.4 FM and Skyz Metro FM – music is being played, local music.
Normally this should translate to more money for the composers of the music. Royalties, which not long ago were being collected only from ZBC, are now being collected, rather should now be collected from more players in the industry, including nightclubs etcetera. I’m not quite sure if the new players in the broadcasting industry are remitting funds like the rest, especially the community radio stations. Efforts to get that information from Zimura last week hit a brick wall after a scheduled interview with the executive director Polisile Ncube failed to materialise.
Ncube and I had a telephone conversation on Wednesday and agreed to meet at her offices the following day at 10am for an interview but something came up on her side. She did not even bother to tell me the interview was off.
Emergencies do come up, of course, and I cannot fault her for that but I felt that she should have at least communicated with me before I made the drive to her offices. To make matters worse, when she was contacted by her office to inform her that the journalist she had an appointment with had arrived, she dismissively informed her subordinate that, “haa muudzei kuti kwaita emergency”. Usually I’m not bothered by this, as journalists we encounter these things on a daily basis. But what incensed me was the attitude. And then I learnt that the emergency that had come up was her dissertation for some programme she is doing with a university in Manicaland.
I pray she does not approach issues to do with the vast amounts of money she handles on behalf of our musicians with the same attitude. I hope Ncube only does this to journalists and treats her paymasters with the respect that they deserve. After all; why does she have to be the spokesperson and the executive director? Why must everything stop just because she has a personal matter to deal with? Henry Makombe, the head of licencing for Zimura was willing to avail all the information I needed, but with the boss not having given the go-ahead, what could he do, his hands were tied.
There is a growing concern among musicians, especially things to do with how much Zimura keeps as administrative fees. With the first of June fast approaching, I hope Ncube and team will be as transparent as possible and that all registered musicians will be satisfied with her answers. Anyway – back to the radio stations. I believe the fact that there are more of them now, should also translate to what musicians are getting because their music is now being played more. It should reflect in the bank accounts of the musicians, the creators of the sounds that keep us entertained.
With live shows priced out of reach for many, especially in light of the current cash crisis – radio has become integral in most music lovers’ lives. For the musician, that means the pocket has been hit on the live show front and so royalties from radio stations playing the artistes’ music day in, day out surely should cover that gap.
But is this the case? Bolt Cutter awaits the answers. We spoke to renowned music producer Mono Mukundu, who happens to be a shareholder in many a musician’s work. “Yes, we are looking forward to the annual Zimura disbursements since it is now the only form of royalties that we now receive. The normal royalties were taken over by pirates,” said Mukundu.
The revered guitarist, however, bemoaned late payments by the broadcasters and the reduction of monies paid by ZBC, the biggest contributor. “But for Zimura to collect money from radio stations has always been a serious hassle since the stations are always behind in their payments. We all know of the Zimura court battles with ZBC. ZBC has even lowered the amount of money they pay for airplay, which has reduced the amount of money by half since they are the biggest contributor.”
On the issue of proliferation of new radio stations, Mukundu said, their coming on board has not helped much. “All this time the new stations were not forthcoming in their payments, so their coming in the picture has not benefited artistes as yet, we hope this time they will contribute something,” said Mukundu.
He praised Zimura’s efforts to put an end to battles between artistes and their band members. “Zimura has also put measures to put an end to in-house battles that were going on between artistes and their band members or even producers. One of those measures was the introduction of split sheets so that interested parties clearly agree on who owns what on a song.
“For instance, when a producer creates a riddim, he is also a composer who owns a percentage of the royalties depending on the agreement, such issues were not very clear before.”
