Image of

FAMOUS kwaito star and TV personality Bonginkosi Dlamini, aka Zola, slammed the trufm youth awards held in East London over the weekend as being boring and not representative of black youth.

Zola, who is popularly known for his straight talk, was contracted by the youth radio station as a guest speaker at the ceremony held at Numbers Dance Club in Beacon Bay on Friday.

The event was aimed at celebrating local youth who have shown excellence in fields like science and technology, sport and business.

But the night got off to a bad start, with half the invited speakers failing to arrive, while others arrived late, including SABC head honchos Khanyisiwe Mkonza and Andile Mbeki.

The visibly angry Zola, who was offered R15000 for his appearance, went on stage and lashed out at the trufm managers for hiring a “white company” to organise a ceremony for a largely black youth radio station. The event was organised by Di Stap Communications.

“I’m bored and disappointed. If this is why you flew me down from Johannesburg , then I’d better go back home ,” Zola said, as trufm managers buried their heads in shame, while other people in the crowd cheered him on by whistling.

“You call yourself trufm, but tonight you are shoving American hip hop down our throats. Look, a white DJ is playing music for us and you have organised white kids to dance hip hop to entertain us. Where are the kids from the township, ” he asked.

“This is pathetic. I regret coming here. People of this town are not patriotic. I have been sitting here for hours, but nobody bothered to mention anything about June 16 and you call yourselves a youth station ,” said Zola, before throwing the microphone on the ground.

Trufm acting station manager Thobeka Buswana said Zola had been making “unreasonable demands” since he arrived in East London. “H is call was not to tell us what to do and what not to do. People can’t expect us to talk about June 16 all the time. He breached the terms of our contract and did not stick to our brief, which was to encourage young people.

“First, he rocked up wearing a beanie and takkies. And secondly, he made ridiculous demands like being chauffeured in a limousine ... We will definitely not use his services in the future,” said Buswana.

She added that the Tsotsi star was paid half of R15000 before the event and that they would now demand that the money be paid back.

Event organiser Di Stap said she was disappointed with Zola.

“He ... created a debate, but it is unfortunate that after what this country has been through, we still have people who think like that ,” she said.

Stap defended their choice of venue for the function, saying it suited the radio station’s youth audience.

To add to the night’s horrors, East London-born singer and SA Music Award nominee Camagwini received a cold welcome.

“Recently I was in London and they all greeted me ... but now I come home and nobody is greeting me,” she said . She sang two songs out of the five she was supposed to sing before she left the stage because of poor sound .

Singing duo Jaziel Brothers saved the night. Other performers were T’zozo, Professor and DJ Sox. - BY LINDILE SIFILE