“Disgruntled artists must come and see us” - Bobodi

The Makhado Municipality responded to the public concern made by local artists who had expressed displeasure after they were excluded from the line-up of the annual Makhado Show.

The municipal spokesperson, Louis Bobodi, said that all affected singers and musicians were at liberty to raise concerns with the municipality who would then "sit down with them and see how best their problem could be addressed. If there are some artists who feel that they are being neglected they are free to contact the municipality in order to improve the standard of the show, and we are also inviting members of our community to give us inputs that will take our show to greater heights. Everybody has to be involved. Our doors are always open.”

He stated that the artists who performed in the show were mostly selected on the basis of the Vhembe district locality. “It is not our intention to exclude any artists from the Makhado area,” he said. “Service providers are appointed in terms of competence. We are not aware that they select only their friends. However, we will revisit the matter.”

One of the artists who had raised the concern after the annual show, King Mlatiro, said he was ready to approach Bobodi directly and see if the municipality was ready to attend to concerned local artists. “The municipality has a tendency of sending people from one office to another, and it strains any sane person at the end of the day,” he said. “We will request Vho-Bobodi to take us straight to the office that is responsible for this matter.”

King Mlatiro added that, as local music artists, they had planned to start a forum for the artists within the Makhado area, so that they could speak in one louder voice. “We want to believe that it's also in that way that our municipality will start listening to us,” he said. “If we do not have a forum which represents us, we may continue to suffer while outsiders continue to benefit financially from what is rightfully ours.”

Date:20 August 2015

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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