Organisers of Afropunk festival in Johannesburg have on Friday announced that Nigerian rapper, Burna Boy has been pulled from the lineup.
This comes hot-on-the-heels of Burna Boy being dropped from the Africans Unite concert last month amidst public outcry over his comments on xenophobic violence in the country a few months ago.
Burna Boy was set to perform at Afropunk, to be held later this month, but organisers announced the u-turn through a statement on social media.
They claimed that “now isn’t the right time for him to come” and apologised to concertgoers for the inconvenience.
“Hey SA fam: After a joint discussion with Burna Boy’s team, we are announcing that he will no longer be part of Joburg’s 2019 line-up. We’ve agreed that now isn’t the right time for him to come. We apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused to our community.”
Hey SA fam: After a joint discussion with Burna Boy’s team, we are announcing that he will no longer be part of Joburg’s 2019 lineup. We’ve agreed that now isn’t the right time for him to come. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused to our community. pic.twitter.com/SdCvYeCpkt
— AFROPUNK (@afropunk) December 20, 2019
This follows a similar decision by the organisers of the Africans Unite Concert last month to withdraw Burna Boy from the concert and cancel its shows. They said the decision to cancel the shows came after warnings of a shutdown from a group of artists and event organisers under the umbrella of the Tshwane Entertainment Collective.
Burna Boy made headlines in September after he took to social media to urge black foreigners living in SA to defend and protect themselves against xenophobic attacks.
In a tweet that has since been deleted, he also told SA rapper AKA to beef up his security and gave him the middle finger. The Nigerian star promised to never set foot in SA again until the government “wakes the f*ck up and really performs a miracle”.
His comments sparked a fierce debate, with AKA and others calling on him to apologise to South Africans.
However, EFF leader Julius Malema and socialite Babalwa Mneno defended the star.
News of Burna Boy’s withdrawal from Afropunk split Twitter, with some saying it was the right decision and others slamming the event’s organisers.
Lmao he’s literally the reason I bought a ticket. I’m out. pic.twitter.com/3vYVbhgkTr
— Labhuti womphokoqo (@C_Mbadu) December 20, 2019
We don’t want him here
— Seazill Terance (@SeazillAyanda) December 20, 2019
Really should have booked that trip to Afrochella.. pic.twitter.com/6NCE5WRucw
— Matšie Dikotla (@Matsied) December 20, 2019
@sadelawson pic.twitter.com/M3Gsoubgwk
— MAHANEELA / finessa williams (@foxyneela) December 20, 2019
-Timeslive
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