AKA breaks his silence on alleged 'xenophobic' management feud

01 November 2017 - 11:56 By Kyle Zeeman
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AKA is caught up in a spat between his former manager and his current business partner.
AKA is caught up in a spat between his former manager and his current business partner.

Rapper AKA has labelled the timing of a xenophobic complaint that was lodged with the Human Rights Commission by his former manager, Raphael Benza against his current business partner, Prince Nyembe as "questionable". 

Raphael's management company, Vth Season, which AKA was previously signed to issued a media statement on Tuesday, explaining that the complaint was lodged, after "hateful, injurious and xenophobic comments," were allegedly made by Prince during email conversations. 

Vth Season claimed that they were in discussions over a contractual dispute and alleged that AKA apparently owed the company money. However, the statement went on to explain that HRC complaint solely focused on the alleged xenophobic messages. 

Responding to the complaint, AKA claimed the email exchanges started late last year, but was only being brought up now because Vth Season was allegedly heading towards bankruptcy.

"It is important for people to know all sides of the story. The company is out of money. The emails were sent when I was in the process of leaving the company because funds were being mismanaged. Everybody can see that I am better off now than when I was at Vth Season. For me, the timing is questionable. When Vth Season is strapped for cash, they want to bring it to light. I don't understand," AKA told TshisaLIVE. 

He denied that he owed Vth Season any money, and said the company had lost its prestige after his departure.

"I don't owe Vth Season any money. Vth Season owes me money. Vth Season was floating their entire company on me. I was the only artist that really ever made them money," he said.

AKA said he had nothing to do with any claims of xenophobia or racism, and did not know why his name was being dragged into the issue.

Benza denied that Vth Season was struggling financially, and claimed that AKA was trying to deviate from the complaint. 

"We are in Mauritius at the moment for a music conference with several of our artists. That should tell you that we are not struggling financially. We only brought this complaint to the Human Rights Commission because it is a human rights issue of xenophobia that is unacceptable to us. Perhaps this is a distraction technique but we will not be distracted from the fact that we stand against anyone insulting other Africans and telling them to go back to their country," he told TshisaLIVE.

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