After being denied not to hold scheduled shows in Zomba and Balaka over Covid-19 restrictions, the country’s iconic reggae group has advised the authorities not to be selective when forcing measures put in place to prevent the further spread of Covid-19 as they say the entertainment sector is the one being pinned heavily than other sectors.
Over the last Easter weekend, the group was scheduled to hold three shows starting off at Vibes in Zomba on Friday and Modern Park in Balaka on Saturday and finish off at Club 24/7 in Blantyre on Easter Sunday.
However, the group managed to hold only one show at 24/7 which was also stopped by police officers before it ended.
The group’s lead vocalist, Anjiru Fumulani expressed his sadness saying, “We lost out; we advertised these shows and invested a lot only to be told at the eleventh hour that we could not go ahead. Some of our colleagues managed to hold their shows but we did not,” the group’s lead vocalist Anjiru Fumulani said on Sunday.
He said they decided to go ahead with the show at Club 24/7 because it was in the afternoon.
Anjiru told the Times that artists have not been holding shows for close to a year due to the pandemic and yet politicians were doing their normal work.
“We rely on these shows to support our families and, due to a ban on gatherings of more than 50, we have been affected. We are citizens who respect laws but politicians have been campaigning recently pulling huge numbers and this is where we are questioning this selective way of doing things.
Markets are operating normally and yet the creative sector is not being given that chance. They need to level the playing field,” Anjiru said.
During their show at Club 24/7 Club, the blacks performed for some time until around 10 pm when they were stopped by law enforcers.
This was the group’s first show attended by an attractive audience since the Covid-19 restrictions came in.