By Nyore Madzianike
Veteran sungura musician, Nicholas “Madzibaba” Zakaria, has expressed displeasure at local businessmen who are in the habit of publicly giving fake promises to musicians, saying such a culture should come to an end.
The Senior Lecturer, as Zakaria is affectionately known by his legion of fans, said fake promises make planning difficult on the part of musicians, especially when the pledges have something to do with production.
“We have had a number of businessmen who are on record giving promises to musicians, and those pledges have never been fulfilled.
“It is disheartening to note that most of these businessmen will not be sincere. At the end of the day, it will be the musicians who suffer, especially when the pledges have something to do with production,” said Zakaria.
The left-handed lead guitarist suggested that this crop of people should be named and shamed as they have a culture of “playing the goodwill role” while riding on the name of an artiste.
“The culture has reached alarming levels and it is worrying. As you are aware, a businessman from Harare promised to fund the production of my album, which was scheduled for release last year.
“That man never fulfilled his promise, despite numerous assurances that he was going to avail the money in time for production.
“I was left wondering whether I am cursed, or not because everything went wrong. Planning was made even more difficult, forcing me to shelve everything that was on our calendar,” he lamented.
The “Mabvi Nemagokora” hitmaker said this amid another false promise from a self-proclaimed Harare businessman (name withheld), who had promised him money to fund the production of his forthcoming album “Inzwa Unzwe”.
Zakaria was scheduled to have produced his 27th album sometime last year, but was forced to put the project on hold because of financial challenges.
He said he will be finally releasing the album on Friday with the launch having been set for Tuesday at Eastpoint in the capital.
“I had to struggle through to make sure that the projects come to completion. It is almost done and we expect the album to be ready by Friday,” he said.
Zakaria is not the only musician to fall prey to fake pledges.
In 2013, veteran gospel singer Mechanic Manyeruke was promised a Jaguar XF by Pride Africa Network in appreciation of his 40 years in the music industry, but nothing materialised.
The gospel grandmaster is still waiting for his posh car. The Herald
