Faku launches xenophobic attack on AKA's manager over royalties

Singer seeks order to be given access to accounting books

- By Ngwako Malatji

Like a ship that has lost its moorings, award-winning singer Ami Faku has launched, in court papers, an attack tinged with xenophobic connotations against her manager Raphael Benza, over royalties.

Faku, full name Amanda Faku, has dragged Benza, a Liberian national, to the Johannesburg High Court, seeking an order to force him to disclose his accounting books and to remit payments of her royalties.

Faku also wants an order to declare that the artist agreement, management agreement and publishing agreement she signed with Benza and his stable, Vth Season, who are second and first respondents respectively, have terminated by effluxion of time and no longer have legal efficacy.

"I am a black South African female music artist. I draw to the attention of this honourable court that I refer to my gender and my colour for the reason that the second respondent (who is a foreign national from Liberia) has a propensity to see out potentially successful young black female music artists and to entice them into a contractual relationship with either himself or with the first respondent to their detriment and to the first and second respondents' financial gain," she stated in the court papers.

Advancing her argument, Faku, whose album, Imali took the industry by storm, said Benza, who was slain rapper AKA's manager, approached her and asked to manage her work in 2018.

She said when she signed the three contracts with Benza, who was previously deported to his native country for living in South Africa illegally, she was still wet behind the ears and naïve, and the stable took advantage of her. Faku said Benza and his stable did not give her an opportunity to consult with an attorney before signing the contracts.

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