No show for Mandoza

For many Mandoza may once have been a Kwaito star, but it seemed Newcastle residents felt his time has passed, after he did not take to the stage at his planned show on Saturday night.

From some community members there was much anticipation regarding his performance at the Farmers Hall, but the numbers, which came out to see him amounted to less than 50 by the time he arrived at the show.

The gates to the event may have been opened at 3pm, but it did little to generate much of a crowd, because by the time Mandoza was supposed to take to the stage at 9pm many of them had already left.

Newcastle’s own talented Disk Jockey, Dj Senino, did his best to rile up the small crowd in preparation for Mandoza, but there was only so much he could have achieved.

Some residents commented saying maybe seven years ago, Mandoza would’ve brought in a crowd, but not anymore.

“Maybe staying away from the spotlight for so long, or the growing trend of the newer age Kwaito music has been the final nail in the coffin of his musical career, but making fans wait nearly three hours after his expected performance time is unbecoming of any musical star,” suggested one attendee.

Event organiser, Ashley Ramdath explained that he had had felt the response of the community during the build-up to the event had been good, and he had expected a much bigger crowd.

“Our adverts, Facebook page and general feeling, which we received from the community had been a good one, and we expected a big crowd,” said Mr Ramdath.

Mandoza’s manager, Kervin Ethan, explained the reasoning behind Mandoza not taking the stage.

“Contractually we have an agreement with organisers that Mandoza will not perform if there is a crowd of less than 50 people. Mandoza was extremely excited to perform for Newcastle, and we made sure we made it to the event, even after suffering with tyre blow-outs on the way down from Jo’burg,” said Mr Ethan.

Mr Ethan refuted the claims suggesting Mandoza had lost his touch with the crowd, and his fans, saying that at every show Mandoza had played at, even after losing some of his fame, he had still managed to put on a thrilling experience, which fans could always take home and remember.

“Mandoza, live, performs at nothing less than what people have come to expect and know from him.”

Proving how dedicated Mandoza had been to putting on a great show for his Newcastle based fans, one of Mandoza’s famous on-stage fellow performers, General had accompanied Mandoza to the show

He concluded by saying Mandoza and his team, who were extremely sorry to the fans who had attended the event, would make themselves available to the organisers of the show to work out a future deal to bring down Mandoza for a ‘proper’ show, because the group felt Newcastle deserved the experience.