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Record company accused of contract breach

 

BBM Theatre

Mohalenyane Phakela

A Qacha’s Nek theatre group, BBM Theatre, has accused Re ea Pele Records of delaying and revising terms of their commitment to give them a recording deal as part of the prize for winning a beauty and Hip Hop competition the latter staged in the district last December.

The Berea district record company which also has studios in Maseru, held the competition on 19 December 2016 and BBM won the music category which carried a prize of recording a single and video which would be promoted on different radio stations but nothing has materialised to date.

The top three beauty queens were also promised tablets and monetary prizes in the competition where each contestant had to pay M20 registration fee in addition to selling 10 tickets for the show at the cost of M50 each.

On Friday, BBM vice president, Sibongile “Ichu” Cekwane told Xpress People that they were meant to have recorded the song and video in December, only to be told last week on Thursday that they had to cater for their own transport to the studio in Maseru.

“Upon realising that they were not keeping their end of the bargain, we made several attempts to reach out to the coordinator of the event, Boitumelo who kept telling us that we would be fetched to record in Maseru and but nothing materialised,” Cekwane said.

“She (Boitumelo) ended up giving us the number of one of the Re ea Pele Records bosses, Switchman, who we called last Thursday and only learned then that we had to cater for our own transport and accommodation in Maseru during recording.

“We were very disappointed as we are only a bunch of students who cannot afford such expenses and therefore have to let the opportunity pass even though we were looking forward to the exposure it would give us,” he said.

For her part, Boitumelo Shale, who coordinated the show, said they failed to fulfil their end of the bargain due to challenges that arose as a result of their failure to secure sponsors and they incurred huge costs in staging the show.

“We had planned tablets and money for the pageant winners as prizes while the musicians were to record a single track and video but due to lack of sponsors we could only buy the tablets but we explained that we could not give them money,” Shale said.

“We had also agreed that they (BBM) go to Maseru and record and since we had no money, we had planned that Switchman would take them in his car but he failed to do so and the bad thing on our side is that we did not explain to BBM that we were facing challenges.

“They contacted me on several occasions and I realised they did not believe me so I directed them to Switchman who said they talked to him in a disrespectful manner,” she said.

Switchman told this publication that “it was stated from the onset that the winners of the music section would come to Maseru studios at their own cost for recording but it is clear that these guys never understood the terms and conditions as they registered late for the contest”.

“I had promised to give them a lift as I spend a lot of time in Qacha but my car had problems so I failed to transport them. They called me on Thursday saying they did not have transport but they were very disrespectful so I ended up dropping the call.

“I understand their frustrations but they should understand the costs that we will incur to promote them and therefore we cannot pay for their transport and accommodation as well,” he said, adding the offer still stood and BBM could still record at a time that was convenient to them.

 

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