The South African Music Rights Organisation (Samro) has denied owing the estate of pop singer Brenda Fassie any money.
At the time of her death, Samro had paid all earnings from royalties to Fassie, Samro CEO Nick Motsatse told reporters in Johannesburg on Friday.
”The money paid to Fassie during her lifetime and after her death is correct.”
Motsatse said money still due to the estate since October 2006 was being held back for technical reasons.
”This money has not been paid out to the executor of her estate for two reasons: Firstly, as a consequence of legal action taken by the executor, all payments due were put on suspense. Secondly, we received a directive from [the South African Revenue Services] not to pay any royalties to the executor.”
Motsatse declined to give details of the amounts involved.
David Feldman, the executor of Fassie’s estate, and Samro agreed on arbitration of their two-year court case earlier this year.
He said that while Fassie might have performed many songs, she did not necessarily write all of them. So she would not have made a large profit on the music rights.
Motsatse said this agreement allowed Samro, who owned the rights to composers’ work and handles the music rights for them, to open their books to independent auditors.
”We would not have allowed that if we had anything to hide,” he said.
He also denied that Samro have ”millions” of rands of unpaid royalties earned by composers in their account.
Samro’s chief operating officer, Gregory Zoghby, explained that while the organisation did have money still owed to artists, it had to wait for the correct documentation before these royalties could be paid out.
Samro said other than Fassie’s estate, no other artists have started or threatened civil action regarding unpaid royalties.
The pop singer, who released hits such as Vulindlela and Nomakanjani, died in 2004. — Sapa