Hundreds of thousands of fans have began scrambling to get refunds for the Burna Boy concert that was meant to take place on 23 September at FNB stadium in Johannesburg.
On Tuesday, Ternary media group and TicketPro issued out statements announcing the postponement of the show following “low ticket sales”. But it seems there is more to the move of the show than just low-ticket sales.
The highly-anticipated concert has been postponed to 16 December, meanwhile some ticketholders have gone to share emails from the ticket system management alleging that the show is in fact cancelled.
The Grammy award-winning Nigerian artist’s management has also come out to share their bit, confirming that the show is actually indeed cancelled due to “the inability of the promoters to fulfil their contractual, financial, production and technical obligations.”
“Production vendors have apparently still not been paid and as such, it is evident at this point that the agreed production standard needed for this venue size cannot be achieved.”
Burna Boy’s South Africa FNB stadium concert is now cancelled and will no longer hold due to multiple factors, including production and technical issues caused by the promoters, low ticket sales isn’t the reason as circulated online and every ticket buyer will be refunded in… pic.twitter.com/BbBqcyvmz2
— benny. (@benny7gg) September 19, 2023
Benny, who is believed to be part of the Spaceship management team took to Twitter to even deny that the reason behind the show not happening is low ticket sales.
He shared that “it’s common knowledge that Burna Boy is the biggest touring African artist and best live performer [and so] it’s important to note that he takes his craft serious and will never settle for less in any way.”
Hitting the brakes on the countdown to his show on Instagram, Burna Boy assured his South African supporters though that he’d still be coming to the country soon.
However, drama is still brewing between the promoters who were meant to deliver the Last Last hitmaker to South African fans. Following a statement from Ternary media group relieving Sedote Nwachukwu of his CEO duties, the man himself started pointing a finger at his Chief Financial Officer.
Read More | Misconduct allegations, CEO dismissed - Drama around Burna Boy performance postponement
“Ternary media group, a prominent entertainment company, announces that Mr Gregory Wings (BlameitonG) a known fraudster in USA that served 10 years for fraud willingly sabotaged the Burna Boy show that was to be held on September 23rd, 2023. To date, Mr Gregory Wings opened up bank accounts and collected over 6 000 tickets that were printed and collected by him at Ticket Pro and to date, none of these funds have been recovered.”
“All allegations made against Mr Sedote Nwachukwu are false,” it further reads.
While everyone who was involved in the show has since distanced themselves from the matter, Gregory has come out to set the record straight.
His first stop was at the Sandton police station where he opened a case of fraud against Sedote.
In his police statement, Gregory details the events that led him to finding out the truth about where the money meant for suppliers had gone.
Read More | Meet one of the brains behind the Burna Boy SA tour, Sedote Nwachukwu
"On Friday 15 September 2023 at around 08:20, I went to see Brandon to show me if there was any supplier which has been paid already. Brandon asked his colleague, Mandy, to go fetch the paperwork. Mandy then came back into the office with the paperwork and to my surprise, +- R8 179 263 had been already [paid] to [an account belonging to a regional bank in America]."
"The whole money was transferred to my business partner's account by the name of Iheanyichukwu Sedote Nwachukwu without my consent," he adds.
It is understood that the money was transferred bit by bit with the first payment being from 27 July 2023 and the last on 8 September 2023.
The former CEO of the media group, however, still insists that there are "legal proceedings that will be taking place against Gregory" whose company and his company "is dedicated to bringing more shows in the future”.
