THE Mzansi tour of the American music group, The Temptations Revue and Blue Notes, ended on a sour note.
This is because of a clash with a local promoter.
The group, which is made up of Eddie Cameron, Marvin Abney, Lavel Jackson, Bernard Gibson and Chris Arnold, were meant to perform in Mzansi for what would have been a nine-performance tour.
But this never happened after the group's manager, Gigi James, accused Beyond Dimensions Corporate Services' local promoter, Antoinette Cassim, of failing to keep their end of the deal.
Antoinette was accused of several contractual breaches, no payment for performances and for several shows not materialising.
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According to Gigi, the group was left with mixed feelings of concern and anger as well as trust issues.
She said:
Gigi said they were scheduled for nine shows, but later found out that some of the shows fell off.
This saw The Temptations perform only three shows, while the Blue Notes performed two. Gigi also claimed that the Temptations Revue had not received payment for any of the shows they had performed.
She said bank statements had to be physically presented to the artists to prove no payment was made. She added that she she felt some of the things the group was doing on the tour were merely a stunt by Antoinette to promote her business.
"We found out that everything we were doing was to promote Beyond Dimensions. We enjoyed the visit to the music school and I thought tickets would be given away for the Carnival City performance, but they weren’t. During our visit to the car dealership, the vans that escorted us were totally about Beyond Dimensions," she said.
But Antionette denied all the accusations made against her, claiming "it was all a lie".
"I feel ambushed. I feel invaded in my own country by people I brought here. It's leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. I worked very hard to make this happen and you get people that come here to tarnish your name," said Antionette.
She insisted that she had not breached any contract and shifted the blame to the group, whom she accused of being in the wrong after they failed to see through some deals she made with them.
"They are the ones who breached the contract because the deal was that they would go to gender-based violence centers and schools and do community work because that is what my company does.
"But they only did two things for me with their stinky attitude. With the last one they said I ambushed them by taking them to a school of color that beat me off," she said.
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Antionette said besides the performances the group failed to do, all payments that were due had already been made.
"I booked the group for Carnival City, which included a cruise, Durban, and Cape Town," she said.
However, Antionette added that she would continue to bring more artists into the country, but would never bring The Temptations.
On the other hand, Gigi claimed that they have always considered South Africa as their second home and that they would not allow this event to change their opinion of the country.
"A bad experience surely did not put a bitter taste in our mouths; we were too mature for it; it was only a stepping stone to an unexpected challenge we were not prepared for," she said.
