‘Gimmick to pull crowds’: Makhadzi’s Tembisa Jazz Festival appearance slammed

Tembisa Jazz Festival organisers have defended their decision to include popular musician Makhadzi to their this year’s lineup, amid backlash.

Many on social media have dragged the festival for including Makhadzi on a lineup featuring Grammy award winning Ladysmith Black Mambazao, Mandisi Dyantyis and jazz band iPhupho L’ka Biko.

Black Mambazo isn’t Jazz either, but it’s the inclusion of Makhadzi that had patrons drawing the line.

Slotjhile Pub & Shisanyama General Manager Cornelius Raseobi told The Citizen the festival would cater for different kinds of audiences.

“Remember, we’re not a jazz business. When we cater for our patrons, we cater for different kinds of music

“We can say Hip Hop festival, but there will still be other genres performing. It’s all about the numbers,” insists the manager.

Cornelius said Makhadzi was popular with the venue’s patrons.

“We’ve actually received more positive than negative responses from people. Our people are demanding Makhadzi, we are working on demand.”

The Tembisa Jazz festival will take place on 28 October at the pub and grill.

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Social media reaction

While many didn’t mind seeing Makhadzi’s name on the line-up, even tagging friends and family to encourage them to attend the gig, others felt there were more deserving artists that were sidelined.

Smangaliso Smash Zulu on Facebook was so irritated, he presented a long list of artists that the organisers could’ve gone with.

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“This is my last Jazz Festival. Tembisa it’s like we don’t know music la[here]……bheka la slotjile[look here, Slotjile]” wrote Smangaliso.

“I guess these jazz concerts are just names used as gimmicks to pull the crowds when the actual artists performing are not even jazz artists,” said Sifiso Vumisa Malindi on Facebook.

Confident about the festival

Located on the west side of Tembisa, Slotjhile Pub & Shisanyama opened its doors in 2017.

The Jazz festival has been an annual event at Slotjhile since the venue was established six years ago. Raseobi said the venue will be able to accommodate the big numbers they’re expecting to flock to Tembisa in October.

“We’ve accommodated crazy numbers before, let them come. Previously we’ve had plus minus 3 000 patrons attend the festival, we are expecting plus minus 6 000 – 8 000,” Raseobi said, confidently.

“The Covid-19 pandemic had an impact on businesses, a number of other places have closed down. You must be happy if you can attract those numbers (3 000) as the economy is still recovering from the pandemic.”

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