Burna Boy-headlined Africans Unite concert cancelled

Some South Africans are in a celebratory mood following the cancellation of the controversial Africans Unite concert which was scheduled to take place this weekend. Nigerian musician Burna Boy was set to headline the event, along with Sho Madjozi and Kwesta, to name a few.

The inclusion of Burna Boy had been criticised by some South Africans, AKA, and Tshwane Entertainment Collective following his threats of violence to AKA and tweets on xenophobia.

Also read: ‘Bloody cowards!’ Malema says after being dragged over comment on Burna Boy

The group questioned the inclusion of an artist who threatened a local artist with violence.

“Your department is funding an event headlined by an artist who goes by the stage name Burna Boy. Whoever may have deemed that the country needs a PR exercise of this nature would have done so largely as a result of the callous, misleading and unwarranted incitement by this very artist. Not only did he spread falsehoods through his extensive platforms, he literally incited violence and hate. He further promised to inflict his own violence on locals before giving your government an ultimatum which you seem to have received and succumbed to.”

Also read: Weekend news recap: Burna Boy, Idols SA’s Luyolo, Khune and Sam Mshengu

Following the statement, Minister Nathi Mthethwa denied reports that his department was funding the event.

As South Africans continued with their call for Burna Boy to apologise, he said there would not be an apology from him. He said those against his performance would have to kill him to stop him from coming to South Africa.

Also read: Artists object to Burna Boy performing in SA as AKA demands apology

It seems they got their way, as the show has been cancelled.

In a statement on Wednesday, the organisers said: “Following extensive engagement with Burna Boy’s management, Phambili Media and Play Network have decided to withdraw Burna Boy from the Africans Unite Concert. As a result, both legs of the concert which were set to take place on the 23rd of November 2019 at Hillcrest Quarry, Cape Town and 24th of November 2019 at Sun Arena, Pretoria, have now been cancelled.

“The decision to cancel the Africans Unite Concert comes after the call from the Tshwane Entertainment Collective to boycott the Africans Unite Concert in Tshwane. With the increasing threats of violence from other unfortunate segments of the public and without any government intervention, Phambili Media and Play Network Africa were prompted to take the threats and warnings seriously, as the safety of all artists and attendees could not be guaranteed. We then decided to cancel the concert. The safety of all attendees, artists and crew comes first.”

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