By Jonathan Mbiriyamveka
The Association of Music and Arts Promoters of Zimbabwe seeks to put a stop on bouncers who storm live shows to terrorize and rob them of incomes by controlling the gate takings.
The rogue bouncers have been imposing themselves at every other live show in and outside Harare and had become law unto themselves posing as security personnel without the knowledge of the music promoters.
Only last year, music promoter Simba Bodyslam Chakare was left blighted in debt after bouncers forced themselves as security personnel at his live show and robbed him of entrance fees.
But the worst is that even after taking over the entrances the bouncers are accused of making fans pay half the cover charge and pocket the money leaving the music promoter either in debt or loss.
This came out of a one-day workshop held Tuesday by the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe where promoters raised their concern to have bouncers barred from attending live gigs.
Another important issue raised was that of corporates for instance Delta Beverages and Econet who have been promoting their own live shows without having the requisite papers.
The two companies are said to hold music shows to promote their brands without being registered with the NACZ, which is the arts regulatory body.
Essentially, the corporates have to work together with any promoter of their choice in organizing such live performances but apparently this has not happened for the longest time.
The NACZ is mandated to clear live performances by any registered music promotion company and benefit from clearance fees.
The current SI allows NACZ to charge five percent of the venue capacity based on average ticket prices for the show as clearance fees for international artists.
But it appears none of the corporate companies are registered with the NACZ as promoters and have been promoting live performances without paying for clearance fees.
In a paper presented to NACZ, Partson Chipaz Chimbodza, the AMPZ chairman reiterated that the music promotion sector needed a clean-up.
“We are concerned about the rogue bouncers who have been stealing from music promoters. There have been a number of cases where the bouncers not only caused chaos at the entrances but also shortchanging the promoters.
“Secondly, we have noted this trend with corporate companies who instead assisting the promoters to identify and nurture talent they come at a later stage when the promoters have done all the work and use the same artist for their own brands.
“It is our wish that the companies engage with the promoters even when they have agents. The beauty of this is that corporate companies have money but together we can identifying and nurturing talent which in turn helps to grow the music business. It will be unfair for any promoter to compete with the big corporates because they have the money.
“And last but not least, there is the issue of rogue promoters who only emerge when they want to do a once-off show. These people are coming from those who want to ‘clean’ their ill-gotten money by way of promoting a live show. We need to be protected in regard to that,” Chipaz said.
Hweva Mvura aka Dollarbill of DollarBill Entertainment, the secretary of the association confirmed that there were up to 22 music promoters registered.
“We are currently going around provinces to try and have more promoters registered with us and in turn create a database for the NACZ.
“This is an empowerment drive because we want the association to be part of chain that authentic if one is a music promoter or not. Basically we define any music promoter who is not registered with us or the NACZ as rogue.
“So the more the music promoters there are in Zimbabwe the more revenue for the NACZ,” Dollarbll said.
He said there is going to be a launch for the association at a date to be announced so that they regularize their operations.
Harare Central Police Chief Inspector Wiseman Mlauzi said it was the first time to hear of the menace caused by bouncers and immediately tasked the association to convene another tripartite meeting involving police, NACZ and the promoters to finding lasting solutions to the problem.
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