His song Osama was a hit even before its official release. When it dropped, it made waves across the country, winning Zakes Bantwini his first South African Music Award in 2022. But the blessing might have also been a curse, as it has opened a legal battle between the Grammy award-winning artist Zakes and his business associates. Zakes is currently in a legal battle to get royalties for his album Ghetto King and the remix of his hit Osama featuring Kasango.

BAD REMIX AND NO ROYALTIES

The producer and music scholar has taken the distribution company Paradise Africa Distribution (PAD) to court for breaching their agreement after they remixed his hit song Osama without his consent. PAD released a remix of Osama by Peter Tong and Paul Roger, which they still promote on their platforms and can be streamed on Spotify, Apple Music, and iTunes. This did not sit well with Zakes and has escalated the matter to the high court. In an affidavit filed at the Johannesburg High Court in December 2022, the Zakes says he is also owed royalties by PAD.

DOUBLE DIPPING

Last year, the same company, PAD handed Zakes a R2.4 million lawsuit for breach of contract and accused him of 'double-dipping' after signing deals with two record labels for his album, 'Ghetto King' with PAD and Universal Music. It is alleged that Zakes Bantwini's deal with Paradise Africa clashed with his Universal Music deal. It is alleged that Zakes Bantwini's deal with PAD allowed them to sell his music internationally and not in Africa and further allowed service providers and other third parties to digitally exploit the album in all technical formats and products through the digital distribution.' For this, PAD agreed to pay 50% net of the profit to Mayonie ?" Zakes Bantwini's company. ZiMoja reached out to PAD, to no avail. Zakes Bantwini's team says the matter is sub júdice. "Zakes doesn't have any comment on this. The matter is with the high court at the moment.'

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