Ndolwane super sounds robbed

MONEY is the root of all evil!

This saying rings true to up-and-coming artiste Romeo Gasa who has allegedly gone into hiding after he allegedly duped Bulawayo promoter Assan Mandizvidza and Charles Ndebele of Ndolwane Super Sounds of $1 650.

As if the swindled money was not enough, Gasa also reportedly vanished with Ndebele's mobile phone and microphones. Ndebele and Ndolwane Super Sounds together with Gasa had conjoined three shows over the weekend. The first one was held at Waverly Hotel in the city with the second and third ones being held in Plumtree and Mberengwa.   

Show promoter Mandizvidza said drama took place when they were having the last show in Mberengwa on Sunday.

Gasa's manager Blessing    was said to be at the gate collecting money together with people from the promoter's side and the police.   

"We had three shows on Friday,    Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday night the show was held at Ngenasi Night Club in Mberengwa. Collecting the gate takings was Gasa's manager Blessing, one man from my group and the police. Gasa was the first one to perform and Ndolwane later followed.

"When Ndolwane was performing I took the manager so that we can go and count the money which he had in tandem with the ticket which we had. I counted the tickets which were worth $850 and the money which he had also tallied with that amount," he said.

Mandizvidza said after they calculated the money for the three shows it was supposed to be $1 650. The promoter and the artiste had agreed that the artiste was to be given 30 percent of the money collected.

"We combined the total amount of money which we raised during the three shows and it was $1650. Blessing then asked if we could excuse him as he wanted to go and look for loose money. We allowed him to do so oblivious that he had hatched a deal with the artiste to swindle us.

"Ndolwane finished their performance and still Blessing had not returned from sourcing change. Charles asked where everyone was and we told him that he had gone to look for change. After sometime we became curious and looked for him but he was nowhere to be seen. That was when we discovered that the artiste and the band members had also gone. A search was conducted but they were never seen," said Mandizvidza.

Efforts to get a comment from the "conmen" hit a brick wall as their mobile numbers were not reachable.
The matter was reported to Mberengwa Police Station on Monday and the case Reference number RRB 2073633.