Swapo pays The Dogg, Gazza N$5m

SWAPO Party has splashed N$5 million on two prominent kwaito stars, an act which has irked other artists who claim to have been given peanuts.

The ruling party gave Gazza and The Dogg N$2,5 million each to exclusively campaign for Swapo. The N$5 million was part of N$7 million, which was budgeted for ‘politainment’.

The N$2 million balance from the N$7 million was given to cultural group Bullet Ya Kaoko, to also perform for Swapo exclusively.

Sources said Gazza and The Dogg’s agreement states that the two would perform at all Swapo rallies and also release an album. They released an album called ‘Solid’ in early October in support of Swapo.

Efforts to get comment from Gazza and The Dogg failed. The Dogg was said to be in South Africa and WhatsApp and Facebook messages remained unanswered, while Gazza’s number was off for two days.

The album has been struggling to sell and some have pointed to the fact that the album does not have new songs as one of the reasons for its poor performance.

The album is mainly a remix and touch-up of regurgitated tracks like ‘Tufike Apa’, and also has a remake of some age-old liberation struggle songs like ‘Ombili Yetu’. ‘Ongundu Handje’ and ‘Uuyuni’ featuring Sally are the songs that sound new on the album.

The song ‘Uuyuni’, which means ‘the world’, in which Gazza teamed up with Sally on vocals and has rich Oshiwambo lyrics and sounds of the African drum, is about unpleasantness of the world and also reflects on the liberation struggle and the country’s rich history.

Another song ‘Ongundu Handje’, which translates to ‘my party’, has a deeper kwaito sound and speaks of Swapo as being the best party that has been around for a long time, maintaining freedom that affords citizens all their constitutional rights.

The two musicians who were best friends during the infancy of the Namibian music industry, are considered the pioneers and hit makers over the past decade.

The duo also released a similar album in 2004 during the Presidential and National Assembly elections campaign.

The information that Gazza and The Dogg each received N$2,5 million did not go down well within the music industry, with artists asking why not more of them were involved.

Swapo youth leader Elijah Ngurare confirmed receiving complaints from artists who were left out of the campaign and said as a remedy to the situation, Swapo had decided to host different themed entertainment bashes where all artists will have an opportunity to perform and get paid.

“We started the idea of politainment to do our part in helping to build the music industry. Nobody was meant to be excluded and I understand why the artists are angry,” Ngurare said.

Top music producer Araffath Muhuure also received N$50 000 to start the politainment project.

Araffath said that his record label, 777 Records, approached Ngurare with a proposal to assist with campaigning.

“We did not want to do what others were already doing. We did not want to force the vote down people’s throat, so we approached him with an idea of a Swapo for all,” Araffath said.

He said they decided to invite all artists because Swapo was previously perceived as a party for the Aawambo only and he wanted to change that perception. 777 Records came up with a 16-track album with more than 15 acts such as Ethnix, Freeda, Dice, Jericho, Carto, S-Man, D-Naff, Hishishi Papa, to name a few.

He said the album covered all genres and all languages to be in line with the message they want to send. The proceeds of the album and T-shirt sales will go to 777 Records.

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