THE war between Ukhozi FM DJ Khathide “Tshatha” Ngobe and former Ukhozi FM DJ Ngizwe Mchunu has reached another level.
Their latest fight has led Tshatha to pull out of the Impucuzeko Maskandi Festival awards where he was going to be honoured.
Tshatha, who is also one of the festival organisers, was going to be honoured alongside Ukhozi FM’s late maskandi presenter, Welcome “Bhodloza” Nzimande, during the festival to be held at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on 30 July.
After the festival announced that Tshatha will be honoured, Ngizwe attacked event organisers and demanded that if they want to honour Tshatha, they must also honour him.
Ngizwe said it was an insult that the festival organisers decided to honour Tshatha and the late Bhodloza at the same time.
He said they should honour Bhodloza alone first, followed by Tshatha and him.
“I won’t keep my mouth shut when I see things going wrong. Impucuzeko started as a skills development platform and they later brought in Tshatha to make him a decoration. Impucuzeko is making a mistake to only honour Tshatha while we were both groomed by the late Bhodloza,” he said.
Ngizwe said their history with Tshatha is amazing. He said Tshatha was not his enemy but was being used.
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“They used him as a tool to start a fight between me and him.
“What is the rush? Why can’t Impucuzeko honour Bhodloza first and then me and Tshatha because we were both groomed by him?
“It’s worse that Bhodloza is no more. Even if he was still alive, it was not going to be fair for him to be honoured alongside Tshatha in the same event,” he said.
Ngizwe and Tshatha once presented Ukhozi FM’s maskandi show together for three years, calling themselves Utalagu. That was before they became enemies.
Tshatha said following all the noise, he decided to pull out.
“It hurts that someone who is calling himself my brother is tarnishing my name and people are giving him attention.
“It’s painful that every time I am supposed to be honoured for my contribution to the industry, there is someone comparing himself to me and wanting to also be honoured,” he said.
Tshatha said this also happened in 2018 when he was going to be given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the South African Traditional Music Awards (Satmas).
“I was honoured because Satma founder, Dumisani Goba, fought for me when this person was comparing himself to me and also wanted to be honoured.
“Impucuzeko was going to honour me for my eight years’ contribution in maskandi music. This person is only older than me but not in radio experience. I already have 12 awards. Where are his awards?” said Tshatha.
Tshatha said those who are still thinking of honouring him must stop and they will only do it when he is dead.
“I’m part of the Impucuzeko organisers but they planned to honour me behind my back. “NowI have told them to stop because of all this noise,” he said.
“When I found out, I agreed because they wanted to honour me for my contribution in maskandi and it was a good thing.
