No More HIPNOTIK for Eswatini Fun Lovers

Swazi Jive’s Founder and Director Sakhile Nkambule has revealed that the hip-hop music festival would be no more in Eswatini. This public statement was published by Nkambule on his Facebook Page yesterday at 8 am.

Below is his statement taken from this link: Sakhile Nkambule

Growing Swazi Jive has been an exciting journey filled with lessons & experiences business school could have never taught me. In the same breath, it’s been a very dark experience that exposed me to pain and suffering that no one could have prepared me for. I remember when we started the business we used to look forward to the news just so we could read & hear all the praises about us. I could have never imagined that one day those praises would turn into constant criticism, & every mistake made we would be publicly crucified for.

2018 has been a year filled with great strides for Swazi Jive, rising above all competition once again & making headlines for many amazing things. We launched a new venue called Sky Lounge where we hosted four consecutive successful events between April & July. We hosted another successful two-day Hipnotik festival in July, marking 7 years of existence. The Hip Hop Heaven theme was famously executed by announcing the peace made with rapper AKA to show the growth & maturity of the festival. The festival attracted fans beyond the SADC region & trained over 130 students (Hopefully future festival owners!). Through our record label, we continued to develop new & existing artists, producing, marketing & distributing music that led to a historic seven nominations for our artists at this years music award show. Lastly, in preparation for launch before the end of the year, we successfully tested “Lalela Music”, a music streaming service for the local market & an online radio station.

On the other hand, we faced many challenges that are threatening the future of some of our services & products in the country. As it stands the Hipnotik Festival is facing opposition from the Ezulwini Town Board & it is highly unlikely that we will continue with the festival in that particular region or the country as a whole. A few companies are currently negotiating sponsorship deals to keep the brand going in our country but at the moment Hipnotik 2019 will not be in ESwatini. Many people will also remember that towards the end of last year we launched the 2018 National Youth Summit. This event will also not be taking place due to lack of funding from Youth Enterprise Revolving Fund and Swaziland National Youth Council. This led to reports about Swazi Jive taking legal action against the parastatals which were accurate. Not all litigation issues reported have been true or accurate which has led to us deciding to have a legal section on our upcoming website. This is where stakeholders will be able to view current issues our law firm is handling and/or lodge complaints in a formal manner. As you can see it is not an easy time to be Swazi Jive, but I urge all our fans to stand behind us as we make changes & grow the brand across borders. New exciting partnerships and product announcements will be made from the official page in due time.

As a result of all the challenges we have faced as young entrepreneurs in the Kingdom, we handed in notice to close the Swazi Jive Headquarters as we find a more suitable environment that can sustain our business & support our vision for African entertainment. The Swazi Jive HQ is where Hipnotik 2016, 2017 & 2018 were organised from, arguably the best shows we’ve ever done & we thank you for all the beautiful memories. A new music studio will be built alongside the new “Lalela Music” facilities in the country but our offices will move in October.

I am almost in tears sharing this post with all our supporters but until we start addressing the real issues in our country there will never be another Swazi Jive, there will never be another young sensation. My new book titled “The Making of a Billionaire” – Untold Stories & Lessons Behind Building a Business Empire is coming 2019 (more information on my next post). God bless.

– Sakhile Nkambule