Alex Matlala

Alex Matlala

Musicians and artists will converge on the Polokwane magistrate's court in Limpopo today when three Dakota Music Wholesalers' employees accused of pirating music and video films appear.

Affected artists commended the Sowetan for publishing an article about the arrest of three Dakota employees for allegedly trading in films and DVDs without a licence.

Musicians who spoke on condition of anonymity said on Friday that they will converge at the Polokwane magistrate's court today to show their support for Operation Dudula.

Operation Dudula is an initiative launched by musicians throughout the country to fight music piracy.

"We will sing and dance outside court during and after the session to show that we support other musicians in the fight in against music piracy.

"We have been terribly robbed of our hard-earned money for ages by this company and we can't take it anymore.

"We knew about this but we kept quiet fearing sabotage," said one Shangaan musician.

"Say we deliver 50 copies of DVDs to Dakota a month, a few months later when you visit the shop, you will find more than 500 copies on the shelves.

"This shows beyond any shadow of doubt that our music is pirated," added the musician.

Mzwakhe Mbuli, chairman of Operation Dudula, said last week that musicians throughout Mzansi were perturbed by the growing piracy levels.

Police last week confiscated 11000 units of suspected counterfeit DVDs and CDs worth about R500000 from Dakota.