Award-winning rhumba megastar Joseph Mbiza, or Zozo to his fans, came out smoking this week, after uncovering what he termed a massive music counterfeit ring in the Musina and Beit Bridge area.

Mbiza, who has been known to produce hit after hit, said it was by chance that he came across the syndicate. “I made a stop by at the Beit Bridge border post and decided to shop around the stalls,” said Zozo. He said he was just about to go back to his car when he heard his music playing at one of the stalls. “I entered the stall and asked for some of my old music and was surprised to see that all my CDs were being copied and sold for as little as R20,” said Zozo.

Further investigations revealed that music by most of the leading artists in the country was being copied for resale. He said he confiscated the counterfeit music, but did not lay a charge. “Our music is being copied and we are no longer making any money from our hard labour,” said Zozo, pointing to a pile of counterfeit CDs he had confiscated from street vendors.

“Artists are starving, while their music is making greedy people very rich. Look, most local artists die poor, while others are enjoying the fruit of their toil and something should be done to stop this,” added Zozo. He urged police to track down those behind the copying of music and to arrest them to teach them a lesson. “This is our livelihood and if these thugs are not arrested, we might as well give up playing music, thus depriving our fans what they love most,” he said.

Zozo said people looked down on well-known artists because they have nothing to show for the many years they have been in the in-dustry. “How do people expect us to have anything when they know they are ripping us off? We will remain poor for as long as people support thieves by buying copied music on the streets,” he said. “Piracy is murder; it deprives us of the means to make a livelihood and is fast killing our careers. Please stop it before the music industry goes down the drain,” he said. He blamed the rampant copying of music on the easy availability of computers at homes. “Instead of buying our music, people are turning to recording our music from their PCs and this is contributing to the downswing in the standard of local music,” he said.

The chairperson of the Limpopo Music Association, the Bishop Roxley Masevhe, said piracy was the main contributoring factor to the fast decline in the quality of local music. “How do you expect us to give our all to a project that we know would not make any money? We are also in business and we want profit at the end of the day,” he said.

He said the buying public needed to be taught the complexities surrounding piracy and this could change their mindset about copying music. Masevhe said his organization was in the process of engaging music companies with the view of introducing CDs that would make it very difficult for syndicates to copy their music. “We are being deprived of our right to make a meaningful contribution to the economy of the country by greedy thugs who only think of their stomachs. We deserve the right to lead a comfortable life as we are working hard,” he said. He said he was concerned that most artists, even after making it big in the industry, die poor and are buried as paupers with other artists having to make collections for funerals. “Just have a look at overseas musicians. They are all millionaires because their communities support them by buying their music. Why can’t we do the same here at home?” he said. “Piracy is degrading and leaves our artists with no means to live, not able to buy equipment and having to beg from others,” he said.