After weeks of protests from South African artistes and the controversies and threats that trailed that African Unite Concert, Burna Boy will no longer be performing at South Africa and the concert cancelled out-rightly.
Following extensive engagement with Burna Boy’s management team, organizers of the concert, Phambili Media and Play Network decided to cancel both legs of the concert which were set to take place on the November 23 at Hillcrest Quarry, Cape Town and November 24 at Sun Arena, Pretoria.
They said the decision to cancel the shows came after warnings of a shutdown from a group of artists and event organisers under the umbrella of Tshwane Entertainment Collective.
“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.”
“As one of the artists at the centre stage of the xenophobic attacks uproar, we saw fit to engage him to be a part of the Africans Unite campaign that aims to ultimately change the current negative narrative to that of solidarity and unity. It seems we have failed in this regard.
“As organisers of the Africans Unite Concert, we continue to advocate for unity and peace. Moreover, we condemn any form of discrimination, violence or aggressive behaviour towards any person due to their gender or nationality.”
“Those who have bought tickets for the concert have been urged to call the Computicket call centre for a full refund to the card used for payment.
Tickets bought at Computicket or Shoprite must be returned to any of the outlets for a full refund. Webtickets offers refunds through its website.”
South African artiste AKA had called out Burna Boy for deciding to come to South Africa after he had said he would not step feet into the country until the president did something about the xenophobic attacks against Nigerians and other African nationals in S’Africa.
When South African artistes demanded for an apology from Burna Boy, he wrote: “Demand apologies from your real enemy’.
