May 12, 2023

Celeb Twitter Round-Up: Tweeps Trash Makhadzi R80-Smear Campaign

R80 doesn’t buy you much these days, but apparently it’s enough to pay influencers to trash Makhadzi online in the midst of her legal dispute with her record label.

See, on 2 May, the “Ghanama” songstress announced that she was parting ways with Open Mic Productions after three years. Initially, she thanked them for playing “a huge role in my growth” before stating that she was leaving to focus on her own record label and “other business ventures.”

On 3 May, though, Open Mic disputed Makhadzi’s claims by saying that she was still under contract with them. What’s more, her contract is apparently “auto-renewable”, meaning that it automatically renews once it expires after a certain period (unless the label expressly decides not to renew it).

This prompted Makhadzi to tweet out more claims on 6 May: according to her, the label never paid her any royalties from her platinum- and gold-selling albums during this period, that she received payments only for performances, and that she’d never seen a copy of her contract despite asking for it on multiple occasions.

“How positive is that to renew my contract without sitting down with me?” she wrote. “Must I continue working where I am not happy? I served my contract, I don’t want to work with them anymore.”

It has since escalated into a legal matter between the two parties. And in the middle of it all, random “influencers” and tweeps began trashing the 26-year-old for lying about not being paid, using the hashtag #8MillionMakhadzi in order to spread their thoughts:

So, per their supposed records, Open Mic has paid out over R8 million in the last two years? Hmm.

While the exact amount of money (if any) is being debated, @MuloiwaThendo got the hot scoop about the alleged money these people are getting paid to troll Makhadzi: