THE cold war between Bonginkosi “Zola” Dlamini and his former boss, Lance Stehr, has ended up in the hands of the law.
This after Lance turned to the police for protection against Zola on Tuesday.
The Muthaland Entertainment boss went to the family court to complain about allegedly being harassed by the TV presenter.
In court papers, Lance claimed Zola has been harassing him since 2008.
He claimed Zola instructed a crowd in Bloemfontein on 5 August to swear at him. He said the incident happened while he was accompanying hisartist, Vusi Nova, to perform at the Civic Theatre.
“Vusi Nova performed at 12.10pm and then Bonginkosi Dlamini took to the stage. I was in the crowd when he performed,” said Lance.
He said after his second song, Zola addressed the crowd.
According to Lance, Zola told fans: “That person paid the media to write about me. And that person is now in the crowd. His name is Lance Stehr and he’s the boss of Ghetto Ruff. So I want you to repeat after me: ‘F*ck Lance, f*ck Lance’.”
He said the audience turned in his direction and then repeated the words after Zola.
Lance said it was clearly incitement toviolence against him and he felt threatened.
“This wasn’t the first time he’s brought my name into disrepute in a public space,” he said.
Now Lance wants the court to prohibit Zola from intimidating him.
The court provisionally ordered that Zola should stop mentioning Lance’s name“or family name or company’s name on any platform, be it stage, TV, print or social media or directly to other people privately”.
He was also prohibited from physically and verbally harassing him.
“My life was threatened continuously over the last seven years. He’s popular and canincite people to do what he wants them to do. He continues to damage my name, my family’s name – and my daughter gets harassed at school,” said Lance.
Zola has until 10 October to respond with why the order shouldn’t be made permanent.
On Friday Lance confirmed he obtained a protection order against Zola.
“I’m tired of this. He’s been harassing me for years. But after Bloemfontein, I couldn’t keep quiet,” he said.
He said he doesn’t know what caused Zola’s outburst.
Meanwhile, Zola is said to be dumping his show, Utatakho.
Insiders revealed the production company is looking for a new presenter to replace him.
Zola said: “This is not the first time Lance tried to escape by issuing a protection order against me. If he owns the name ‘Lance’ that’s a different case, but I’ll never stop talking about that name. He owes me millions of rands and I can’t let him off the hook just like that.
“I’ll fight till the end. There are many songs all over the world I’m part of, which I don’t get royalties for. Some of them are untraceable and he’s behind all that.”
Zola denied allegations about leaving Utatakho: “It’s lies that I’m leaving the show.”
