Umodzi park sued over Dru Hill cancelled show:  South Africa-based agent demands K1.7bn

South Africa-based agent, Archie Tigere who was hired by Umodzi Park to facilitate the failed trip of US musical grouping Dru Hill, has sued Peermont Hotel managers for unlawful arrest and is demanding R38 million (about K1.7 billion) as damages.

Umodzi Park managers hired Archie Tigere of Tigere Media to facilitate Dru Hill’s performance on December 12th, but the show was cancelled and the organizers claimed it was all due to a dispute between the artist and the agent.

Tigere was arrested by police on 10^th December – two days before the concert- for allegedly obtaining money by false pretence. The organizers claimed he pocketed 35,000 rands (about K2 million) from Umodzi Park.

Now Nyasa Times can reveal Tigere has taken Umodzi Park managers to court, demanding R38 million as compensation for all the damages he suffered following his arrest.

The case currently at High Court in Blantyre and Tigere is being represented by Paul Mzembe of KPMJ Associates.

Tigere confirmed of the case to Nyasa Times, arguing “We just didn’t want these so-called big corporates walking all over the small companies simply because these big corporates have the financial muscles to do what they want when they want”.

He further argued that his company lost a lot of businesses when Umodzi tainted their names in the newspapers.

He added: “We also lost potential income from the events we were supposed to host at Umodzi during the 2016 calendar”.

He then accused Umodzi Park managers of stealing his idea of bringing in South Africa’s Micasa who is set to perform in the country next month.

This was one of the artists we sold the idea to Umodzi and they agreed to it but now they decided to bring Micasa via another events company avoiding us”.

It was reported earlier on that American music group, Dru Hill was forced to cancel its Malawi concert after the organizers of Umodzi Park failed to meet contractual obligations.

It was found out that Umodzi Park officials- General Manager, Neal Sewnarain, Finance Manager, Jaco Malan and Sales and Marketing Manager, Temwa Kanjadza- breached their contract with Dru Hill six times in total with regards to performance fee payment timelines.

They also failed as organizers to meet accommodation and flight bookings, which were part of the deal.

It is understood that the agent, Tigere Media was supposed to fund Dru Hill’s USA -RSA flights and Umodzi Park was supposed to book the RSA -Malawi return flights, which they could not do as of Wednesday December 9th, forcing the group to cancel the concert.

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