The company behind the multi million rand lawsuit against the Ghanama hitmaker has broken its silence on the matter.
In a statement to Sunday World, the director of Kicks Sportswear, Sammy Mhaule told their side of the story on the saga involving Makhadzi and Open Mic.
They claim to have made efforts to Makhadzi and her team after noticing that Makhadzi failed to promote the sneaker. She was to do so on her social media pages and wear them.
They then claim to have made a Whatsapp group in an effort to sort things out.
“Despite all this, Makhadzi was still unable to effectively meet her end of the bargain. Due to Makhadzi’s refusal and/or neglect to adhere to the terms and conditions of the agreement, as well several failed attempts to help her do so, we thus resorted to taking the legal action route to help resolve the matter,” the statement reads.
The sneakers aim was to make it big in the market and with Makhadzi help, that would have helped them.
“This remains an unfortunate step and occurrence for us as we did not foresee events unfolding as they have. As a new brand of sneakers, we are doing our best to enter the market. Our hope was that partnering with Makhadzi and investing in her brand would help us propel both brands to greater heights,” the statement continues.
In a statement, Open Mic hit back at the company and explained what the terms of their agreement looked like.
“The plaintiff therefore claims damages for the following: The units of shoes in the warehouse being 6 900 pairs, less 20 pairs, sold in Limpopo, thus being 6 880 shoes at the retail price they would have sold, if first and second defendants did not breach the partnership agreement, thus amounting to R8 249 120,” the court papers read according to Sunday World.
“But yet again due to the breach caused by the first and second defendants, the plaintiff suffered a tremendous financial loss of R379 921, which invoices was attached to the letter of demand that was sent on the 6th of May 2022.”
"The complainant has made gross and unsubstantiated claims in his summons which we would like to dismiss as falsehoods, fabrications, and misinterpretations of how the events unfolded," the statement continued.
"Stock never arrived in the agreed 90 days. It wasn't until February 2022 that 6900 shows were received. Several attempts were made by Open Mic Productions to assist the supplier to honour the obligations of delivering the goods. In terms of the contract, the complainant was to provide 8000 pairs of shoes on a monthly basis and that has not happened to this date," the statement continues.
"At this joint meeting, it was agreed that we will attempt to jointly salvage the situation. Instead of a meaningful meeting with the complainant, we received summons plus particulars of the claim."
Open Mic claimed they too made efforts to right some wrongs, but their efforts failed.
"We are puzzled by his claim of R8 million considering that Makhadzi has lost earnings due to the fact that she had exclusivity tied to the deal and as such missed other deals."
Image Cred: ANMG