The Sunday Mail
Local artistes are crying foul over the delay of payments of royalties by Zimbabwe Music Rights Association, which have been outstanding since 2013.
Over 900 musicians who registered with Zimura that year have not yet received royalties that were supposed to have been paid in 2014.
In 2014, about 2 850 artistes registered with the organisation. They too are yet to be paid royalties.
Musician Romeo Gasa accused Zimura of opacity on the issue.
“When I last visited Zimura in June, they told me that they skipped paying royalties for 2013 and advised us to wait until the 2014 royalties have been issued out,” said Gasa.
“Honestly, I think there is no transparency because some of my fellow artistes are actually saying that they are receiving their 2013 allocation this year.
“It is so confusing, maybe they are selecting individuals to allocate royalties to, I don’t know.”
King George Chipara, the frontman of sungura outfit Zembere Xpression, said there had not been any formal communication on the delay.
“Professional people communicate when something unusual happens in business.
“This helps to ensure transparency in all transactions. My music was being played very well in 2013, but up to now I have not yet received the royalties and no formal communication has been made by Zimura informing us on what is taking place.”
Phineas Nyarunga, band manager for Ramangwana Musica, said that when they enquired about their 2013 royalties, they were told that they were not yet ready.
Zimura executive director Ms Polisile Ncube said they were paying 2013 royalties.
“Zimura is allocating royalties according to the Zimura number order and the payment depends on receipt of funds from our clients.
“To avoid many people coming at the same time, we pay them in batches,” said Ms Ncube.
She said Zimura would pay all 2013 royalties by the end of this year, adding: “We have not yet issued out the 2014 royalties because we have not yet received the funds for that year.”
Zimura’s rates for this year is US$2,15 per airplay from the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and 20 cents from Star FM.
The charge per play changes from year to year, depending on the amount received by Zimura from its clients.
Although Ms Ncube could not disclose the total amount received by its organisation from its clients for royalties, the director explained why ZBC and Star FM rates per airplay were different: “Star FM do not collect licence fees, so they pay lower (rates).”
