Record label Gallo has refuted several damaging claims made by Thami Shobede’s friends following his death. The singer died in hospital earlier last week after collapsing during a performance.
The 31-year-old’s cause of death has not been confirmed but several publications claim that he passed away after his organs failed. Thami rose to fame on singing competition, Idols SA. The season 12 runner up stole the hearts of many South Africans who continued to support him long after the competition ended.
Thami had been open about his ups and downs in the industry, but many were shocked when his close friend Themba Humana told mourners at a Johannesburg memorial that he was treated unfairly by his record label, Gallo. Themba said that Thami tried to get out of his contract with the label in 2017 but was allegedly told to pay money. These are the words [from the label] when Thami wanted to get out of the contract, ‘We have five years with you and you can’t go anywhere. If you want to go anywhere we need between R350k – R500k on everything we have done for you’,” he said at the memorial.
Themba added that Gallo bosses allegedly did not support his music career as much as they should have. I have been to many of Thami’s shows and we never saw Gallo there. Gallo would say, ‘Thami you had a gig, we need 20% from the money you got’. Thami, from whatever he’s getting, he would share the money with his band and management. On top of that, he still needed to take care of his sisters and mother,” he said.
Themba further claimed that Gallo bosses did not pay Thami all his royalties and was not there for him when he was admitted in hospital. Thami was a breadwinner; taking care of his two sisters and mother. It happened that when we saw that the situation was getting worse we called Gallo. Gallo never responded and was never there for Thami. Thami had a contract with Gallo and wanted to get out of the contract. He also claimed that Gallo only contributed R5 000 towards Thami’s funeral.
In other news – SA drug mule caught with cocaine in dreadlocks heading home
Convicted South African drug smuggler Nolubabalo ‘Babsie’ Nobanda is heading back to South Africa.
In 2011 Nobanda was arrested at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport after she was busted with 1.5kg of cocaine stuffed in her artificial dreadlocks. Read more
Source: ALL4Women
