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Festival shut down because of Steve Hofmeyr drama


Cape Town – Fears of racial tension due to Steve Hofmeyr’s proposed performance at the Namaqua festival in Vredendal have caused the festival to be cancelled, reports Die Burger.

Last Friday, an e-mail on behalf of the Vredendal municipality from Lionel Phillips, acting director for development and city planning, was sent to event organiser Events24, requesting them to not let Hofmeyr take to the stage.

The e-mail states that Hofmeyr is well-known for instigating racism through his songs and comments and requests "friendly yet seriously" to retract Hofmeyr’s invitation to perform.

According to event organiser Louis le Grange, he didn’t want to get involved in such politics and therefore decided to withdraw from the festival completely, cancelling performances by about 20 artists.

The cancelling of Hofmeyr’s performance comes after he got flack for singing the pre-1994 anthem at the Innibos cultural festival in Mbombela in front of 45 000 people.

Hofmeyr shared the video of him singing the anthem on his Facebook page together with his views on it.

He said: "I will sing it more and I ask that the ban on our sacred traditional song be lifted and all may be free to sing what they want, where they want, as long as it is not hate speech or preaches violence."

Hofmeyr has since taken to Twitter to voice his opinion on the festival and his performance being cancelled.

He tweeted: "The city council (Lionel Philips) wanted to tell us what to do but then we both withdrew. I'm getting legal advice."




In a post on his Facebook page, Hofmeyr denies that he is responsible for the cancellation of the festival and puts all the blame on Lionel Phillips. He wrote: "There you have it Lionel Phillips: 17 artists, one agency and a whole town without an income for that weekend."

He added: "Don't tell me what to sing at my concerts!" Click here for the full post.

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