DJ Shimza ruffled feathers on social media this past weekend when he urged show organisers to adopt a “no cooler box” culture at events.
In a Twitter post which the renowned club DJ has since deleted, Shimza said festival promoters were struggling to make profits from events while retailers who were not contributing to the event ended up cashing in big profits.
He wrote: “Dear festival promoters, let's teach our people the culture of buying at our festivals, why spend all the money, put in all the effort for a TOPs to make money you could be using to better your festival? R100 a cooler that's carrying R500 alcohol is not enough, go for the R500!!!.”
Here’s Baby Face Shimza’s deleted tweet. #Shimza pic.twitter.com/eHXxJZhuZF
— Man's Not Barry Roux (@AdvBarryRoux) October 20, 2019
The statement didn’t sit well with many, as fans took to Twitter to express their displeasure at what they assumed was Shimza encouraging extortion of festival-goers, with some labelling him as arrogant.
Tweeps came out guns blazing, with fans threatening to boycott him.
#Shimza wa phapha that's it pic.twitter.com/IOfvcAUDkD
— IG: Tee_chauke1 👑 (@Thato_Fentse) October 20, 2019
Shimza reminds me of that account that used to tweet: Stop being poor
He says: events should stop letting people come with coolers that have alcohol.
And someone said: but alcohol is expensive inside
He replied: Then the culture of budgeting must kick in
😭😭😂😂😂
— ukhanki (@TboozeSA) October 20, 2019
Shimza lost some weight and gained some arrogance pic.twitter.com/lDsIQkKTvC
— heiress (@NMutula) October 20, 2019
They tell shimza that alcohol sold at an event is expensive, He replied that "The culture of budgeting must kick in"
The audacity 😂
— Mxolisi J. (@Letmaxeat) October 20, 2019
#Shimza lol most of South African celebrities have the same arrogance, they don't respect the people, they will call you poor forgetting that they have money because of those poor people pic.twitter.com/xDhK6wG87v
— Da Truth (@DaTruth57865850) October 20, 2019
To which Shimza replied: "You engage online with people and when you don’t agree with them they blame it on ego and arrogance, guys some of us tell it like it is sometimes we not here to cover the truth to nurse feelings."
You engage online with people and when you don’t agree with them they blame it on ego and arrogance, guys some of us tell it like it is sometimes we not here to cover the truth to nurse feelings
— SHIMZA (@Shimza01) October 20, 2019
In an attempt to put out the fire, Shimza posted a video, explaining that he wasn’t encouraging event organisers to “rip off consumers”, he was merely encouraging them to maximise their profit.
“A lot of you think I'm saying that you guys must be ripped off and stuff. I'm saying if I'm doing the festival why must our consumers go to TOPs and spend R500 and only give me R100, while TOPs is not contributing to the show.
That’s it! No one said rip off consumers, protect your business so you can sustain it and make a profit coz you in business for that! pic.twitter.com/KtsekVv8BW
— SHIMZA (@Shimza01) October 20, 2019
But tweeps were having none of it:
Your sentiments made it sound like you wanted promoters to rip off even goers.
You can't expect people to pay for tickets, alcohol,food and merchandise at an event,yet promoters don't feel the need to meet consumers half-way with prices.
— Theo The Ninja™ (@Yung_TheoLogyZA) October 20, 2019
One word ngithi " Exploitation "
— Zani Maonga (@Zani_slendar) October 20, 2019
Meanwhile, the local entertainer seems to be making waves on the international stages.
Check out Shimza shutting it down in Barcelona and Paris over the weekend.
View this post on Instagram
First time in Barcelona last night! Thank you @opiumbarcelona 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾❤️❤️❤️🕺🏾🕺🏾🕺🏾
A post shared by SHIMZA(@shimza.dj) on Oct 21, 2019 at 2:00am PDT
View this post on Instagram
We did it! 😊 Thank you Paris for an amazing night 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 #djoonexperience @rexclub ❤️ #Shimza
A post shared by SHIMZA(@shimza.dj) on Oct 19, 2019 at 9:43pm PDT