The Southern African Music Rights Organisation (Samro) press briefing at the Garden Court Hotel in Milpark on Wednesday was abruptly brought to a halt after members crashed the briefing.
The briefing was meant to set the record straight on the 2023 investigation, commissioned by Samro and conducted by Fundudzi Forensic Services, focusing on the financial years 2020 to 2022, which uncovered alleged fraudulent claims of undocumented works worth R62m made by prominent members.
It was also meant to speak about board members implicated still being part of the board.
Samro members Owen Ndlovu, Tshepo Mashiane, Mfanafuthi Nico Dumakude, Tebogo Sithathu and singer Mercy Pakela burst through security to storm into the boardroom, demanding the briefing stop.
They claimed an insider told them the board members were misinforming the media.
“It's all about us. We are shareholders here. We are not invited to the meeting. Some board members are not here. The chairperson cannot run the show on his own. We cannot allow this press conference to go on without us. They are lying to you. They are saying 82% voted,” Ndlovu said.
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After the disruption, Samro CEO Annabell Lebethe said the members were informed that their “concerns” and “issues” would be addressed after the briefing.
“The members were here before we started and we told them this is a press engagement in correcting the narrative. There are things circulating in the media that we wanted to correct, as the organisation, so media is able to give a balanced view on things.
“We can't run away because we are meant to serve our members and we represent their interests.”
Samro chairperson Nicholas Maweni added: “We have been quiet, as an organisation, because we have to do what is right and not what is easy. Foremost, we are professionals and we're running an organisation.
“We've allowed members to create allegations and we've been quiet. We found a time to address some of these issues which was today's [Wednesday] intention. To deal with the facts and dispel some of the falsehoods. Let's focus on facts and if there are any falsehoods, let’s deal with it.
“The facts speak for themselves. The noise is drowning. At times the CEO has had people running around in the office with guns where she had to get a protection order, these are our lives, it's a handful of individuals who are aggrieved and we're happy to engage them.”
Amid the chaos, Lebethe said the business was still fully operational and they were getting to the bottom of the issues members have raised.
“The organisation is not imploding. We are still licensing music users, we're still distributing money. That is our core business. We're still managing the copyright assigned to us and we'll continue to do that. We are working in the best interest of our members. It’s our responsibility and obligation."
Samro members went on to corner Samro secretary Marianne Fourie to interrogate the voting process in the EGM on August 29 to get rid of allegedly implicated members.
“It's not the first time we're using this process, it's just this time there's clearly anger and all of these things. We've been [using the] voting process since 2018, so there's nothing new about it. Any person who has been deprived from voting or from logging in, it's unfortunate. That's what we're dealing with all over the country,” Maweni said.
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