My late cousin, Nicholas “Samaita” Zindi who was an ardent and passionate Zimura board member, would be turning in his grave if he knew what was going on at the organisation he left behind.
A storm has been brewing between musicians’ organisations in the last two weeks over the introduction of performance licencing fees for cover music by Zimura. Local bands and artistes are required to pay US$150 to perform cover songs.
Zimura stated: “The licence fee for live bands performing cover versions or copyrighted music is US$150 per event. It is the duty of the venue owner or event organiser to verify, prior to the performance, that the band has a valid Zimura music copyright licence.”
“Failure to do so will result in the venue owner or event organiser being required to pay a penalty of US$100 on top of the licence fees required per event or show if an unlicenced band is found performing at your premises.”
Imagine a band with six members earning US$300 after a gig giving away to Zimura half of their earnings! They will need transport to go back home. They will also need to transport their equipment at a cost before splitting whatever is left (if any). This directive is tantamount to robbing Peter to pay Paul.
This is not practical as Zimura although it consists of a bloated board and employs several people in the office, does not have sufficient manpower to monitor events throughout the country.
Who is going to police this, I wonder? If a patron makes a request for a Bob Marley song, which is not listed on the band’s performance list during a performance and the band decides to play that song, should they be penalised for attending to that patron’s request? After all, their job is to entertain the patrons.
The directive has sparked outrage among musicians and their associations, who argue the tariffs are unfair.
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This is nothing new. We debated this in 1994 when Gill Atkinson was Zimura's general manager and decided to forgo this thinking. When I became the vice-chairman of the Zimura board under the chairmanship of Prince Tendai Mupfurutsa, we also debated this phenomenon extensively and we concluded that the musicians that we as an organisation were trying to protect, do not earn enough money in order for us to impose a tariff on their live performances. It would be tantamount to robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Zindi would always tell me that he earned more money as a Zimura board member than he did performing in Transit Crew.
We were given a US$100 each for attending meetings. Samaita made sure that he never missed a meeting and was often at the office an hour before the commencement of each meeting. He would even ask us to meet more often due to the allowances paid to board members.
Should this taxation of musicians take place (I don’t think that it will happen), how will the distribution to individual composers of the music be carried out? Does Zimura even have an accountant or even an internal auditor to check on the movement of moneys collected? I remember when I was a board member, we fired three Zimura inspectors who went to venues to collect fees, but never brought the money to Zimura offices. What safeguards are in place now which ensure that money collected from venues will end up at Zimura offices, let alone in the hands of the musicians? Who is there to account for this money? Will Janet Manyowa, the board treasurer have sufficient time to co-ordinate money which is paid in bits and pieces? She will need to be a fulltime employee of Zimura and be paid a large sum from the musicians’ royalties.
I do not know any musician in Zimbabwe who does not perform copyright music. To give examples, Jah Prayzah sings live on stage Furuwa, a song originally composed by Tairos Tendaupenyu. Aleck Macheso sings Mundikumbuke, a song by Malawian musician, Lucius Banda. I could go on and on as there are many examples. Asking these two music giants to pay US$150 each time they go on stage to perform live is a joke, let alone smaller artistes. If an artist has four gigs in a week, it means they have to fork out US$600 every week to Zimura.
During our debate when I was a Zimura board member, we concluded that there was no need to impose a fine on local musicians, otherwise we would impoverish them further as everyone (including Oliver Mtukudzi at the time) played copyright music. Almost every guitarist of my generation learned to play the guitar using Hey Joe by Jimmy Hendrix and they liked to show off their guitar prowess using this knowledge. To learn someone else’s song was everyone’s entry into the pop world. Most students at the Zimbabwe College of Music learn to play nyunganyunga mbira with the song Nhemamusasa, which is a traditional song they did not compose. The late Stella Chiweshe, who played this song during all her live performances, often said that this is the song she learned to play mbira on.
If copyright music was banned in this country, bands such as Transit Crew, House of Stone, or individual artistes such as Mannex Motsi and Jeh Farai would be out of work since most of their repertoire consists of copyright songs.
I bet if Zimura had engaged with all stakeholders and its members before enforcing this punitive action against the very people it represents they would have received a resounding no!
However, the board sneakily implemented its decision to give a directive to a silent membership.
The current Zimura board consists of the following members: Albert Nyathi (board chairperson), Farai Batani (vice chairperson), Alexio Gwenzi (director of information, media and publicity), Mudiwa Hood (director on innovation and strategy), Janet Manyowa (board treasurer), Dingumuzi Phuti (director responsible for relationship management and liaison), Witness Zhangazha (board legal advisor).
Established in 1982, Zimura is an association for music composers, authors and publishers. It was founded to protect some of the rights granted to creators of music by the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act of Zimbabwe, Chapter 26:05. The latest entry to the board is Hope Masike. Apart from two of the above mentioned members, none of Zimura board members are involved in live performances on a regular basis. Some are not even musicians. They do not make their living through live performances. Some of the board members even spend most of their time at Zimura offices as if that is their workplace. That is absurd.
(I brought Witness Zhangazha, a qualified lawyer, on board because he was critical of Zimura at first and I said to the chairman, “Let’s send a thief to catch a thief”. This is how we wooed him onto the Zimura board. He is still there, but I do not think that he gave proper legal advice to the board to carefully think through on this one.)
Zimura should target DJ’s instead as they have a collections of artistes’ music, most of which is foreign. Local bands should be spared. When I was a DJ on Radio 3 (now Power FM) and also on ZiFM, we used to fill in log sheets with the list of songs we played to send to Zimura. These were never accurate, but we perfunctorily filled them in as a requirement. Sometimes we ended up playing listeners’ requests, which were not included on the log sheet. How then are royalties to be accurately distributed given such inaccurate information? I know that this is still a headache for Zimura.
Cover bands should only be asked to acknowledge the composers of the songs they cover.
Licencing fees for public performances are traditionally the responsibility of venues and event organisers, who secure broad performance rights that cover all artistes performing at their establishments. This practice is standard in countries such as the United States, South Africa, and across the European Union, and has previously been upheld by Zimbabwe’s Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act (Chapter 26:05), which Zimura itself has followed for years.
By shifting this financial responsibility to individual artistes, Zimura has disrupted a long-standing system, creating uncertainty across the music industry. The directive has not been clearly communicated, leaving musicians and venues confused about how and when the fee will be enforced. As a result, some venues have already suspended live performances to avoid potential legal risks, depriving many musicians of their primary source of income.
Zimura also represents music creators all over the world through reciprocal agreements that have been signed with Music Rights Associations and Societies otherwise known as Collective Management Organisations and by virtue of Zimbabwe being a signatory to the Berne Convention, which provides for equal treatment of music rights holders throughout the world.
Zimura is affiliated to the International Confederation of Authors and Composers Societies, the World Intellectual Property Organisation, African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation, and the Zimbabwe Intellectual Property Office under the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs among other organisations that uphold Intellectual Property Rights.
As Lionel Richie said: “Let the music play”.
- Feedback: frezindi@gmail.com
