Ukhozi FM DJ served summons

THE Department of Arts and Culture is in the process of recouping an amount of R421 000 out of the R4 million paid to popular Ukhozi FM DJ after it had bungled payment to fund his initiative in 2017.

DJ Sgqemeza, whose real name is Sipho Mbatha, received more than R400 000 in funding from the department for his City to City Motivation Tour project in 2017.

However, during the payment process, the department said its employee had erroneously paid R4m into Sgqemeza’s business bank account.

Yesterday, drama unfolded at the SABC studios when the Ukhozi FM DJ was served with summons.

Efforts by the department’s lawyers to serve him with a summons have been unsuccessful on many occasions since March last year.

The department’s lawyer together with the sheriff of the court stormed into the SABC studios and were eventually able to serve him with summons when he emerged from the studio at the end of his shift.

A security guards tried to blockade the entrance to the sheriff from gaining entry to serve him, but he forced his way in to get to Sgqemeza.

“While the commotion was in progress, the management intervened and he was eventually served, after which he signed the court papers,” said a source.

Arts and Culture Department head Ntokozo Chonco confirmed that the DJ owed R421 000 and that he had been dodging paying back the money since 2017.

He said when department realised the error, it had informed Sgqemeza.

However, at the time he only returned R3m of the R4m inadvertently paid into his account.

Chonco blamed Sgqemeza for using money he knew very well that he was not entitled to.

“We requested for him to pay back the money. The responsible thing he should have done was to return the extra money as soon as it was paid, because he knew how much funding he was supposed to get,” he said.

Chonco said the department had taken disciplinary action against the employee responsible for the payment error. “The employee had pushed the wrong button when making the payment. He was given a warning.

“The department came to the conclusion that it was a human error,” Chonco said.

He explained that the DJ paid R3m back immediately when he was made aware of the error.

According to Chonco, Sgqemeza thereafter entered into an agreement on how he was going to pay about R600 000 that he had still owed the department.

“He, however, did not honour that agreement. Our legal team made many efforts to serve him with a summons from March last year. We were told that he was working from home. Efforts to serve him at his residence also failed, hence today we decided to serve him at his workplace.

“This was not done to embarrass him but as means of recovering the money,” he said.

Chonco confirmed that Sgqemeza was expected to appear in the Durban High Court soon.

When contacted for comment Sgqemeza denied being served with a summons.

He also denied that the department had erroneously paid R4m instead of R400 000.

Sgqemeza further denied that he owed the department R421 000.

“I don’t know anything about that. That's news to me,” he said.