Artists stormed the press conference organised by Samro to address allegations leveled against the organisation.
Disgruntled musicians who are members of the Southern African Music Rights Organisation (Samro) disrupted a press conference held by the Samro board on Wednesday morning.
“They are supposed to listen to us, they’re not supposed to dictate to us – this is why we fight. If you discuss with them openly or confront them, they sabotage you,” singer and Samro member Mercy Pakela told The Citizen.
The Ayashisa Amateki vocalist was part of a group of artists who stormed the media press conference organised by Samro to address allegations levelled against the organisation.
ALSO READ: Samro claims to be cracking down on corruption within its ranks but fails to prove it
The contentious Samro report
The storming of the press conference comes after months of corruption allegations against Samro, which stem from a 2023 investigation commissioned by Samro and conducted by Fundudzi Forensic Services.
The investigation revealed fraudulent activities involving certain members, including composers, authors and publishers, in collusion with a former Samro employee.
The forensic investigation focused on the financial years 2020 to 2022.
This misconduct resulted in irregular royalty claims amounting to R3.4 million, flagged during Samro’s internal processes, from a total of R60 million claimed.
About R30 million was paid out, while the remaining undisbursed funds remain in the Undocumented Works pool.
ALSO READ: Samro hits back at claims it suspended its COO for exposing dodgy spending
Samro COO
In early August, Samro suspended chief operating officer Mpho Mofikoe after she reportedly discovered that at least R90 million had allegedly been spent recklessly.
“The Fundudzi [forensic report into allegations of irregular payments of undocumented works] was very thorough,” Mofikoe said in the extraordinary general meeting in July. “We failed internally as Samro.”
In the same meeting, Mofikoe said she knew she would get fired for blowing the whistle.
“I had to raise a grievance against the board because of interference that is currently taking place by the board.”
Samro has denied her suspension was a response to her actions.
“The precautionary suspension is standard practice to allow an impartial process to proceed to its fair conclusion without interference,” read a Samro statement.
Part of the reason for the July meeting was to explain the report to members.
Earlier this year, The Citizen requested the full report, but Samro said it was maintaining the integrity of the ongoing process.
ALSO READ: Samro says Kwaito artist owes them R120k for fraudulent bursary access
Implicated individuals
However, an article by The Daily Maverick said the Fundudzi report pointed out three individuals; Louise Bulley, the owner of VVP Publishing, Ryan Hill, managing director of Universal Music Publishing and Rowlin Naicker, managing director of Sony Music Publishing.
The trio were subsequently voted out of their seats.
Long-serving Samro board member and former head of Sheer Publishing David Alexander was also implicated in the Fundudzi report.
Alexander had allegedly been secretly given amnesty in 2023 by the board’s chair, Nicholas Maweni.
Maweni wrote an affidavit in support of Alexander’s move to the US to escape charges after his visa application was denied due to investigations into his misappropriation of Samro members’ royalties.
“We voted for them, we were convinced to vote for them, but lately we don’t want them anymore because of their misconduct,” artist and Samro member Mfanafuthi Dumakude told The Citizen.
“They’ve been implicated in too much shenanigans of corruption-claiming un-doc [Undocumented Works] of which is unknown work, which is supposed to be distributed to all members equally. We’ve said that on 10 July…they started claiming for their friends,” he said.
“They are now calling for the amnesty of those particular individuals implicated in misconduct. How do you call for amnesty if you are implicated? The chairperson has an interest.”
Dumakude said the best solution would be the removal of all board members.
“To start from scratch, that is the best way, to start afresh with a new board. That is the only way that will make it fair and square otherwise it will always be fiddled with, hijacked and mismanaged,” he said.
“They are actually claiming them; they’re claiming all the monies because there’s no transparency.”
Unlike Dumakude, Pakela said she would prefer some of the board members be removed instead of the entire board.
“Not all the board members, but if it comes to the push we can remove all of them. Actually if we can manage to take over the operation of Samro we’d be happy. We own Samro, as members we are the owners of the entity.”
“They are constantly lying to the public as if we’re crazy. Our music is played on air almost every day and we don’t see the fruits of that,” Pakela said.
Following SAMRO’s press conference held today, please find below the clarifications distinguishing fact from misinformation regarding the Forensic Investigation Report and the precautionary suspension of the COO.
— SAMRO (@SAMROMusic) September 10, 2025
Part 2 or 2 pic.twitter.com/jNztgKrFEX
A few hours after Wednesday’s press conference, Samro released statements on social media denying the claims leveled against it.
