Maseru Jazz Festival management has issued a statement informing concertgoers that singer Kelly Khumalo will no longer perform at the upcoming festival.
“As Maseru Park, we here to inform you that we have seen comments on social media about one of our guests’ performers which came to attention that we need to inform our public and society that we are putting Kelly Khumalo on hold.
“We respect the professionalism of the legal team on the processes,” read the statement.
The Maseru Jazz Festival follows in the footsteps of the Tribute to Women concert that is taking place on August 12 at Emmerentia.
“The management of Maseru Park in the interest of our Jazz Festival, we have taken the decision to relieve Kelly Khumalo of the obligation to perform at our festival and we acknowledge that she is not guilty until proven so.”
Unlike the Tribute to Women's concert, Khumalo had not posted about the Maseru Jazz Festival on her Instagram account, where she usually updated her followers about her gigs.
In response to IOL Entertainment regarding why the Tribute To Women Festival director Joe Chakela removed the singer from the line-up, her manager Kgothatso Tsotetsi said, “The promoter behind the Tribute to Woman concert is Joe Chakela who happens to work for Sheer music, the publishing company Kelly and Universal Music Publishing have just won a legal battle against.
“They tried to hang on to Kelly besides the fact that her contract with them had expired and she had no intentions of renewing and this is their way of getting back at her,” Tsotetsi explained.
Tsotesi brought into question how an artist can be cancelled when they have not even been “fully paid”.
“He could have just said he’s no longer interested in proceeding with the booking instead of the whole smear campaign hoping to use my artist to sell tickets,” he added.
IOL Entertainment has reached out to Tribute to Women organisers for a comment.
Ever since the death of her boyfriend Bafana Bafana soccer player Senzo Meyiwa in 2014, Khumalo has faced criticism from the public, even more so now that her name has been implicated in the ongoing Senzo Meyiwa murder trial.