Ncube once made the assertion in 2018, that there was an
eight-member “Mafia” abusing local artists, but refused to name it.
“There are eight people who I know personally who make
every event that is not from Bulawayo a bad thing,” said Ncube four years ago
on a Facebook Live discussion with Iyasa founder Nkululeko Dube.
“Those people need to be stopped and if they are removed
from Bulawayo, so be it.
“There’s a lot of hard work being done by artistes in
Bulawayo, but their mediocrity as artistes in their personal capacities has
stifled these people’s careers and this has to stop.
“One of the biggest challenges of working in Bulawayo is
that I’m never made to feel at home because there’s a certain group of people
in Bulawayo who think that they own it, they must validate you (first).
“I can perform in Harare and they’ll call me their own,
even in Victoria Falls where I’ve lived for a short while, or in Gweru or
Mutare, but in Bulawayo, I get a lot of hate from the people there.”
Last week, on the Denny J show, an incensed Ncube made the
same sentiments adding that Bulawayo arts industry was run on tribal lines.
Ncube quizzed why ‘successful’ artists were not credited
for being from Bulawayo when they leave the city.
“Bulawayo and Matabeleland has exported the majority of
artists like Iyasa, Nobuntu and Mookomba,” he said.
“They bypass Harare and go outside the country, but
Bulawayo doesn’t want to celebrate those artists.
“Why is it that every time it’s mentioned that Bulawayo
artists are not booked? Why it is that successful artists like me are not
mentioned? Why is it not important to mention that?
“As for me I am called a sellout.
“How do you push your agenda if the very people who are the
luminaries are called sellouts? Why does Bulawayo export such great artists and
choose to abandon them when they make it?”
He added: “Out of the luminaries outside Bulawayo, how many
have won awards in the city? I did a Ted Talk and I don’t win awards in
Bulawayo and I am called a sellout, its fine.”
“Let it be known today on this show that I am a sell out
yet I have been telling my Ndebele heritage all over.”
Ncube alleged that he has had his shows sabotaged in
Bulawayo for not being Ndebele or Bulawayo enough.
“I have realised that it’s so difficult to perform for my
own people because there is a layer of people who are giving a bad name to
Bulawayo in the name of Bulawayo is being left out,” he said.
“I have even been booked by promoters who have sabotaged
their own shows only to prove a point.
“There is something about being Ndebele and coming from
Bulawayo that is like you have to qualify it by more than just existing.
“There is a certain group in Bulawayo I really wish did not
exist, somewhere in the top layer in entertainment there is a group of people,
the very same guys who complain about Harare are the same guys who are
sidelining their own.”
Born Carl Joshua Tinodavanhu Ncube on May 25 in 1979 in
Bulawayo, he grew up with his mother in Marondera after his parents divorced.
Ncube attended primary school at Barham Green Primary
School and Greenfield Primary School in Bulawayo, as well as Borrowdale Primary
School in Harare, Waddilove Mission School and Mutare Junior School.
He is said to have skipped fifth grade after his relocation
to Marondera where he was now staying with his mother. Ncube did his secondary
education at Prince Edward High School in Harare. Standard
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