Some South African artistes under Tshwane Collective have petitioned the South African Minister of Arts and Culture protesting the inclusion of Burna Boy in the ‘Africans Unite’ concert scheduled for 23 and 24 November.
The Africans Unite concert will be stage and it is in response to recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa.
READ ALSO: Burna Boy To Donate Concert Profit To Victims Of Xenophobic Attacks
The event is been organised by Play Network Africa, based in Nigeria, in partnership with Phambili Media SA, under the support of South Africa’s department of arts and culture.
A host of musicians will perform with Burna Boy being a notable inclusion. The first concert will be held at Hillcrest Quarry in Cape Town on 23 November and the second at Sun Arena, Time Square in Pretoria.
However, Burna Boy’s inclusions seem to be the worry of the Tshwane Collective as they have questioned the exclusion of local artists and Burna Boy’s invitation to perform at the concert, accusing the African Giant of inciting hatred against South Africa, in the wake of the xenophobic attacks.
READ ALSO: Burna Boy Completely Fills SSE Arena; Becomes First Afro-Beat Musician To Achieve This
“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.
He further promised to inflict his own violence on locals before giving your government an ultimatum which you seem to have received and succumbed to,” the group said in the letter to Nathi Mthethwa, Minister of art and culture.
However, the department of culture has dissociated itself from the concert saying that its logo had been used “erroneously” on posters advertising the event.
“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 said.
Asanda said that the department 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.”
Source: www.ghgossip.com
