Fans were left disappointed when the first lady of Inkabi Records, singer Lwah Ndlunkulu was a no-show at an event in Cosmo City, Gauteng. The musician, whose real name is Lwandile Mtshali (22) from Ladysmith in KwaZulu Natal failed to pitch where she was apparently booked to perform at Louis Cafe. Patrons were informed at the last minute that she was no longer going to perform at the venue due to technical issues. It has now emerged that the singer was never paid by the event management company that booked her.

PULLING OUT LAST MINUTE 

According to an insider everything was in place for her to come through but things went south and she informed the manager of the establishment that she was no longer coming. "The painful thing is that we marketed the event and people bought tickets hoping to see their favourite artist and at the last minute we found out that she was no longer coming. People were not happy when we announced that Lwah was no longer coming and we had to tell them that it was due to technical issues. We are now left with no choice but to make sure that we bring Lwah to our venue to make up for the last weekend as some people are still angry at the last-minute glitches that led to Lwah not pulling up. We have to make sure that it possible for her to come and perform at Louis Cafe. We will announce the date through our social media page," the insider said, adding that Louis Cafe issued a statement, where they were explaining to the public their position on what went wrong," the insider said.

SCAMMED?

Event organiser, Muke Tshabalala confirmed to ZiMoja Lezinto that they had booked Lwah for Saturday’s event. Tshabalala said that they paid R25 000 to a third party who claimed to be an associate of Lwah and promised to have secured the booking for them. "We would like to address the artist’s no-show at Louis Café. We were approached by an events and promotions company called EEP that asked us for an opportunity to use our venue to host Lwa Ndlunkulu at their own discretion," Tshabalala said, adding that," after numerous meetings, they were granted the venue for them to use. We noticed that there seemed to be an issue with the flow of the event when the agreed scheduled time for the artist’s performance came to pass with no clear communication from their end to us. We then took it upon ourselves to contact the artist’s management company directly to find the reason why Lwa Ndlunkulu wouldn’t honour her booking. We were then brought up to speed with that booking fee. The events and promotions company that approached us never secured a booking with Lwa Ndlunkulu and Inkabi Records accepted another booking for Lwah to perform in Venda."

SECURING ANOTHER BOOKING 

Tshabalala also said the situation was beyond Louis Café control. "We are aware of how Lwa Ndlunkulu’s fans are greatly disappointed by this and how our brand has been negatively affected by all this hence now the executive decision to book Lwa Ndlunkulu directly with Inkabi Records, with no third party involved," she said. Tshabalala further said that they have resolved the matter and that Lwah will be performing this Saturday to make up for the past weekend. The owner of Enzokuhle Events and Promotions Kaybee confirmed that incident but claimed that they were a victim of a scam. "We were a victim of a scam, a guy scammed us using Lwah’s name and the matter is currently being investigated because we paid and he lied about being an associate of Lwah. He took our money and we found out at the last minute that he was not part of Lwah’s management," he said. When contacted, Lwah refused to comment on the matter.