Published by the government of Zimbabwe
Wonder Guchu
2 August 2008
Harare — IN what could be an embarrassment for Oliver Mtukudzi, the Southern African Music Rights Organisation has dismissed his claims of non-payment blaming him for creating serious complications with documentation.
Mtukudzi told a South African Sunday paper two weeks ago that Samro had not paid him royalties for the past 10 years.
Although Samro says there are some royalties "attributable to musical works associated with Mtukudzi either in undocumented works or in non-society status", these can only be paid through collecting societies that represents the musician.
The organisation says it cannot pay directly to Mtukudzi and that the musician cannot claim any money directly from them because he has never been and is not its member.
Instead Samro blames Mtukudzi of not telling the truth when he sought membership with them in 1998.
The organisation also accuses Mtukudzi for belonging to two collecting societies - Zimbabwe Music Rights Association (Zimra) and Gesellschaft Fur Musikalische Auffuhrungs (Gema) - in contradiction of the International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies (CISCA).
Furthermore, the organisation says Mtukudzi causes confusion by signing his surname differently even in the same document.
Samro says Mtukudzi was a member of Gema for the world territory from 1995 until December 2005 according to CISAC, which was founded in Paris, France in 1926.
During the same period, Samro says, Mtukudzi was also a member of Zimra for the same world territory and his membership has continued to date.
"It is not permissible in terms of CISAC rules that a person can be a member of more than one society for the same territory.
"Mtukudzi was a member of both societies for the territory of the "world", which means that until 2005 he was a member of two societies in contradiction to CISAC rules," the organisation claimed.
When Gema discovered that Mtukudzi was a member of Zimra for the same territory in 2005, Samro says, it terminated his membership for the world territory and re-registered him as a member of Gema for the world excluding Africa.
"That was an apparent attempt to resolve the clash in membership with Zimra, a situation that was not entirely resolved as he still continued to be a member of Zimra for the world territory," the statement says.
Samro further says that Mtukudzi applied for membership of Samro in 1998 but was informed that he needed to resolve his membership with Zimra and Gema because he could not be a member of more than one society for the same territory.
"We have on file a number of correspondences from 1998 to him directly, where we explain this fact and encourage him to go through a formal process of requesting the societies to which he belongs to grant him release in order to apply for Samro membership," the statement claims.
The organisation also points out that there are a number of complications that have made it impossible for paying Mtukudzi.
"The Zimra account, for all royalties payable to that society, had been put on suspense since the latter part of 2006 but that has now received attention and royalties will be paid through to Zimra. We are currently investigating the reasons for such a suspension.
"Mtukudzi often spells his surname differently. He interchangeably uses Mtukudzi and Mutukudzi as reflected in his application for membership to Samro and his registration by either Zimra and / or Gema on the IPI.
"It is not usual that a person can spell his / her surname differently and some times in the same document. This creates serious complications with documentation especially when users supply performance returns," Samro says.
The other complication, the organisation says was that in his original application for membership to Samro Mtukudzi stated that he was not a member of any Performing Rights society, a declaration not borne by the facts on hand.
"That had an impact of creating further documentation problems."
City.com has however established that Samro had been paying Mtukudzi through Zimra until 2004 when he joined Gema.
It also established that payments stopped coming after Gema had written to Zimra requesting them to clarify Mtukudzi's membership position.
A letter from Gema membership department written to Mtukudzi and copied to Zimra in 2005 raised this issue of Mtukudzi's membership as claimed by Samro.
At the time, Gema was holding onto Mtukudzi's money amounting to 28459,29 euro in royalties.
"Your Gema account shows a credit of EURO 28459,29. The credit could be transferred to your bank account if the question of the simultaneous membership with Gema and Zimra and tax questions could be clarified.
"Please let us have confirmation of yourself and Zimra saying that you and/or Zimra agree with the worldwide administration of your exploitation rights by Gema excluding the territory of Zimbabwe," the letter says.
According to Polisile Ncube, Zimra director, they wrote to Gema releasing Mtukudzi's portfolio and soon after Samro payments that used to come through them were stopped.
She said Gema had to pay Mtukudzi after they had written to them making it clear that Mtukudzi was their member and that Zimra had no problem with him if he became a member.
The letter from Gema also reveals that Samro had informed them that Mtukudzi had sought membership with them.
Contacted for comment via email, Mtukudzi who is touring the US repeated that he had never received any royalties from Samro and that he had not applied personally for membership.
Instead he says, his publisher company Tuku Music had applied for membership with Samro.
"In respect of your questions, I can confirm that I personally have not applied to Samro for membership and I can confirm that I personally have never received any income from Samro.
"Tuku Music has applied for membership at Samro as a publisher. Tuku Music has never received any income from Samro," he wrote.
Ncube also dismissed Mtukudzi claims of non-payment saying the musician received money from Samro through Zimra until 2004 when he joined Gema.
"He is claiming that he had not been paid for the past 10 years. This means that he was last paid in 1998. But records here show that in 1998, he received royalties from Samro through us," she said.
Schedules of payment shown to city.com prove that Samro had paid Mtukudzi through Zimra over the years until 2004.
In 1998, a schedule shows that Samro paid Mtukudzi for his song Bvongodza Muto and another one shows that in 1999, the musician was paid for his songs Mukombe and Wawona played on South African radio.
Although there was no schedules for 2000, the artiste received some money in 2001 for the play of his song One Belief Away and Wawona that was played on the Oprah Winfrey show through Samro.
In 2003 and 2004, records also show that some payments were made from Samro.
For example in 2003, Samro paid for Neria, Into Yami, a duet done with Ringo Madlingozi and Wasakara.
In 2004 Samro remitted royalties for Into Yami, Mai Varamba, Vhunze Moto, Muranda Kumwe, Rurimi, Sandi Bonde, Tapindwa Nei, Wasakara, Wenge Mambo, Ndanga Ndabaiwa, Ndiri Bofu, Ziwere, Tenda Ishe and What's Going On?
One of the copies was signed presumably by Mtukudzi, according to Ncube.
She said they issued out statements whenever a musician gets paid and Mtukudzi received such statement either by email or letter.
"Maybe the question is whether Mtukudzi is querying what he was paid and not that he was not paid anything.
"You will note that after we had cleared his membership position with us giving Gema rights to collect his royalties abroad, the funds stopped coming in.
"This explains the whole issue of membership.
"There are two things that have to be looked into as possible causes for non-payment.
"This makes it difficult for the organisation to know whether the musicians are the same or different. Already we had a query from Gema in 2000 where they wanted to know whether the artiste was the same person," Ncube said.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Herald. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
