Tribute to Women festival has issued a statement following its decision to drop Kelly Khumalo as one of the performers.
A concept of the Malibongwe Arts Festival, the Tribute to Women concert will take place on Saturday 12 August 2023, at Emmarentia Botanical Gardens in Johannesburg.
Taking to social media to announce the decision regarding the matter, the Tribute to Women team shared a statement explaining why the Empini hitmaker was cast out as a performance act.
The statement read:
“We have noted, with concern, various comments on social media platforms and calls from many patrons of our festival. We respect the legal processes and wish to indicate that Ms Kelly Khumalo is innocent until proven otherwise.
“However, in the interest of safeguarding our festival, management has taken the decision to relieve Ms Khumalo of her obligations to perform at our festival this year to afford her and her team the time they require to deal with the issues emanating from the current court proceedings.”
This statement comes after social media users shared their disappointment and outrage at the Asine hitmaker following a testimony of cellphone records by Colonel Steyn that showed she had contact with one of the accused, two times before the soccer star was murdered.
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Social media users shared their views, with many asking if there would be a replacement for Kelly and some suggesting who to take her place.
They shared:
“How Bathong ?was really looking forward to her performance ??♀️??♀️.”
“Please replace her with Simmy or Nomfundo Moh or Zonke ?.”
“Kelly Khumalo is not R Kelly though…?… so unfair what organisers pulled. Wrong message sent to future organisers and their events.”
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