Uganda Musicians Association (UMA) president Cindy Sanyu has castigated events promoter Andrew Mukasa alias Bajjo who recently released a list showing how much they (promoters) will be paying local musicians per show.
Under their umbrella body, National Promoters’ Association, the event organizers released a document indicating that they would book singer-turned politician Bobi Wine at Shs20m per show, David Lutalo at Shs6m, Sheebah Karungi and Eddy Kenzo at Shs5.5m and Shs5m respectively.
According to Bajjo singers like Juliana Kanyomozi are being over paid for their performances. He argues that Juliana cannot gather crowds compared to his top paid artists on the list.
Following the viral document, Cindy has come out to advise the promoters to stop booking musicians they cannot afford to pay.
“If you can’t afford an artiste, don’t hire them. You can’t force an artiste to step down to your standards,” Cindy said in a Facebook post shared on Thursday evening.
The controversial document issued by the promoters is the hottest topic in Uganda’s entertainment circles. The document also comes days after the Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) threatened to take legal action against musicians, promoters and other creators who do not have Tax Identification Numnbers (TINS).
In a meeting held on Tuesday, URA and artists, under UMA, agreed that there was need to sensitise stakeholders on the directive before implementing fines and imprisonment terms measures as URA had indicated in its December newsletter titled Taxation of entertainment events.
