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Cape Town – U2's Johannesburg show may feel the brunt of a picket by disgruntled roadies.
Website Pollstar is reporting that South African Roadies Association (SARA) chief Freddie Nyathela has endorsed possible picket action protesting what he called a failure "to involve black production staff when top acts visit the country".
Nyathela reportedly sent an open letter on February 4 to the sponsors and service providers involved in U2's SA shows.
In it, he accused Big Concerts, Mushroom Productions, labour brokers Running Crew and Gearhouse Group of excluding black production staff from work opportunities when big acts visited the country.
“The South African Roadies Association intends to mount a picket backstage at the U2 Johannesburg concert venue during U2’s visit to South Africa, to highlight the travesty and affront that such sponsorship and service use support of untransformed companies represents,” the open letter reportedly said, according to Pollstar.
But Big Concerts and Gearhouse have strenuously denied any such policies, while Big Concerts' Attie van Wyk has already sought legal advice against Nyathela's accusations of racism.
The war of words has evidently been ongoing for some time, while various attempts to mediate the various organisations' differences have been unsuccessful.
Technical Production Services Association chairman Robbie Blake is said to have offered to set up a mediation process, but correspondence between he and Nyathela reportedly came to a "vitriolic" end late last year.
Website Pollstar is reporting that South African Roadies Association (SARA) chief Freddie Nyathela has endorsed possible picket action protesting what he called a failure "to involve black production staff when top acts visit the country".
Nyathela reportedly sent an open letter on February 4 to the sponsors and service providers involved in U2's SA shows.
In it, he accused Big Concerts, Mushroom Productions, labour brokers Running Crew and Gearhouse Group of excluding black production staff from work opportunities when big acts visited the country.
“The South African Roadies Association intends to mount a picket backstage at the U2 Johannesburg concert venue during U2’s visit to South Africa, to highlight the travesty and affront that such sponsorship and service use support of untransformed companies represents,” the open letter reportedly said, according to Pollstar.
But Big Concerts and Gearhouse have strenuously denied any such policies, while Big Concerts' Attie van Wyk has already sought legal advice against Nyathela's accusations of racism.
The war of words has evidently been ongoing for some time, while various attempts to mediate the various organisations' differences have been unsuccessful.
Technical Production Services Association chairman Robbie Blake is said to have offered to set up a mediation process, but correspondence between he and Nyathela reportedly came to a "vitriolic" end late last year.
