Deal sheet
- Status
- Partly established. Documented: the identity of the credited phonogram owner on every Makhadzi release from 2017 to August 2026, release by release, from Apple's catalogue and corroborated independently by Deezer and, for the Open Mic period, by MusicBrainz; the fourteen day overlap between the Open Mic and Makhadzi Entertainment credits in 2023; the shared and chronologically interleaving GS1 757572 serial pool across both companies; and the fact that no public statement by either party concerns master ownership. Also documented: Open Mic's 11 May 2023 public rebuttal of Makhadzi's payment claim, giving a R7.9 million plus R300,000 figure and a legal retraction demand, itself disputed by neither an audit nor an admission from Makhadzi. Not established: the terms of any agreement between Makhadzi and Open Mic Productions or Rita Dee Entertainment, its commencement, term, territory or consideration; the holders of GS1 prefixes 757572 and 766214, and therefore the distributor in any period; publishing, which no document reviewed touches; the corporate identity of Makhadzi Entertainment and Rita Dee Entertainment; and which party's figures on the royalty dispute are accurate. No party has announced any of these arrangements and Open Mic's confidentiality position on the underlying contract itself was never withdrawn.
- Type
- Distribution
- Parties
- Open Mic Productions (Pty) Ltd, Makhadzi Entertainment, Rita Dee Entertainment
- Amount
- Not disclosed Not disclosed
- Rights covered
- Master recordings. The phonogram credit on Makhadzi releases runs Rita Dee Entertainment from 4 May 2017 to 1 November 2019 (9 releases), Open Mic Productions from 9 October 2020 to 9 June 2023 (16 lead-artist releases including the albums Kokovha, African Queen, Pain Ya Jealous and African Queen 2.0, 74 album tracks in total, plus 18 featured-artist releases), and Makhadzi Entertainment from 26 May 2023 to 28 August 2026 (47 releases). The Open Mic credit has not been replaced on the earlier recordings and still stands as at 30 September 2026. Publishing is not covered by any document reviewed and is entirely unestablished.
- Territory
- Not stated on any release credit. Credits are byte-identical on the South African and United States Apple storefronts, both read 30 September 2026, so no territorial carve-out is visible in the metadata. Open Mic Productions states on its own site that it is based in Centurion, South Africa. Makhadzi is South African. No document states a contractual territory.
- Announced
- 2023-05-03
- Primary document
- Rights registry
- Sources
- Apple iTunes Lookup API, Makhadzi artist catalogue (artist ID 1162488352, South African storefront), full set of 83 collections read 30 September 2026, returning the phonogram credit string for every release. Lead-artist releases were separated from featured-artist releases by comparing the returned artistName, so no feature credit is attributed to Makhadzi as owner. Re-read against the United States storefront the same day with identical credits. Cross-checked release by release against Deezer, which returns independent label and UPC fields, and against MusicBrainz label-info and barcode fields. · Apple iTunes Lookup API, "Makhadzi Entertainment" artist profile (artist ID 1688549495), 47 collections read 30 September 2026, running 26 May 2023 to 28 August 2026. This is the separate profile under which her own company releases. Establishes the catalogue split. · Apple iTunes Lookup API, same artist profile on the United States storefront, read 30 September 2026: 47 collections, identical credits. Negative check for territorial variance in the phonogram credit. · Apple iTunes Lookup API, third Makhadzi-related artist profile (artist ID 1697518426), read 30 September 2026: one release, "Vho Mazwale", 14 July 2023, credit in Makhadzi's own name. Contradicted by Deezer, which gives the label as Soultec Records. · Deezer album record for "Kokovha", read 30 September 2026: label "Open Mic Productions", UPC 757572913992, release date 2020-10-16. Independent corroboration of both the Open Mic credit and the 757572 GS1 prefix. · Deezer artist and album crawl entry point, Makhadzi (Deezer artist 11145336), 49 albums paginated and each album fetched individually for label and UPC on 30 September 2026. Corroborates the Rita Dee period (2017 to 2019) and the Open Mic period (2020 to 9 June 2023) release by release. · Deezer albums index for the separate "Makhadzi Entertainment" artist (Deezer artist 212404267), 39 albums, read 30 September 2026. Mirrors the Apple catalogue split on an independent registry. · MusicBrainz label record for Open Mic Productions (MBID 13a5fd7f-83be-4155-8c62-fed912952762), read 30 September 2026: 14 releases held under the label, including Kokovha and African Queen 2.0. Third independent registry on the label attribution. · MusicBrainz release "Kokovha", read 30 September 2026: date 2020-10-16, barcode 757572913992, label Open Mic Productions. Matches Deezer's UPC exactly, so the GS1 prefix evidence does not rest on one registry. · MusicBrainz release "African Queen 2.0", read 30 September 2026: date 2022-11-18, barcode 0757572939985, label Open Mic Productions. Second independent barcode match. · City Press, 3 May 2023, re-verified at this URL 30 September 2026 (the original slug this record cited, "makhadzi-parts-ways-with-open-mic-productions-20230503", now 404s; this is the live replacement carrying the same statement). Carries Makhadzi's statement verbatim ("I have taken a decision to not renew the contract with Open Mic Productions so I can focus on my own company 'Makhadzi Entertainment' and other business ventures" and "Please note that Open Mic Productions will no longer represent me in terms of performance bookings and other related matters. From now on, all bookings will be handled by my own company Makhadzi Entertainment") and Open Mic managing director Nkateko Maluleke declining comment on confidentiality grounds. Note that the statement concerns bookings and contract renewal, not master ownership. · East Coast Radio, May 2023, re-verified at this URL 30 September 2026 (the original slug this record cited now 404s; this is the live replacement carrying the same quotes). Carries Makhadzi's royalty allegations verbatim ("I have never received any cent of my sales", "I signed with open mic only for three years. In this three years I dropped 4 albums", "how possible is that for you to renew my contract without coming to me, what if I not happy working with you?") and her statement "the contract has ended. I don't want to work with them anymore." Allegations, unresolved as to amount, though see the 11 May 2023 Open Mic rebuttal below. · Kaya 959, 3 May 2023, re-verified at this URL 30 September 2026 (the original slug this record cited now 404s; this is the live replacement). Corroborates the departure statement and Makhadzi's stated reason for leaving ("it's time I grow my own business") without adding an ownership claim. · Kaya 959, 11 May 2023, read 30 September 2026. Open Mic Productions' rebuttal, eight days after Makhadzi's "not a single cent" claim: the label says it paid her R7.9 million directly plus R300,000 to TW Property as a deposit on a house in her name, and its lawyers demanded she retract the payment claim as "false, harmful and defamatory," giving her until 12:00 on Friday 12 May 2023 or face legal action. This rebuts the payment claim specifically. It contains no statement, denial or admission concerning who owns the masters, and the managing director's earlier "confidentiality" position on the underlying contract was not withdrawn. · Daily Sun via snl24, 3 May 2023, re-verified at this URL 30 September 2026 (the original slug this record cited now redirects and then 403s; this is the live replacement). Same departure statement, corroborating booking handover, no ownership claim. · Open Mic Productions own website, read 30 September 2026. Self-describes as a "fully-fledged, 360 degree record label" based in Centurion. Roster listed as Tee Tee, Ewube, Mr Brown, Tuksin SA, Prince Benza, Oufadafada and Eves Manxeba. Makhadzi is not mentioned. Absence from a roster page is evidence she is no longer a current artist, and is NOT evidence that the masters moved. · Makhadzi Entertainment own website, read 30 September 2026 (HTTP 200). A promotional hub. Lists services as releases, distribution, events, ticketing and management (Makhadzi and Fortunator SA), with bookings and media contact addresses. Carries NO statement of ownership, no company registration number, no registered address and no claim to any masters. Negative check. · GS1 prefix-holder lookup, attempted 30 September 2026: HTTP 403. grp.gs1.org returned a not-found page and gepir.gs1.org returned an empty body the same day. The holders of GS1 prefixes 757572 and 766214 are therefore NOT established and no distributor is named in this record. Negative check, recorded so the gap is on the file. · South African CIPC BizPortal, attempted 30 September 2026: unreachable, HTTP 000. eservices.cipc.co.za returned HTTP 200 but is account-walled. Registration numbers, directors and shareholders for Makhadzi Entertainment and Rita Dee Entertainment are not established. Negative check.
Read this before citing: THE PHONOGRAM CREDIT IS EVIDENCE OF OWNERSHIP, NOT A CONTRACT. The circled P line is the registering party's own statement of who owns the recording, delivered with the recording and published on the storefront. It is the strongest routinely available evidence of master ownership and it is not the agreement. It states no term, no territory, no royalty rate, no advance, no option and no reversion. Nothing in this record should be read as a description of any contract between Makhadzi and Open Mic Productions.
A CHANGE OF CREDIT ON NEW RELEASES IS NOT A TRANSFER OF OLD ONES. Makhadzi Entertainment holding the credit from 26 May 2023 says nothing about the four albums released between 2020 and 2022. Those still carry Open Mic Productions. Catalogue routinely stays with a former rights holder indefinitely while new releases go out under a new credit. Do not read this record as saying Makhadzi recovered her masters, and do not read it as saying she did not.
THE PUBLIC DISPUTE IS NOT AN OWNERSHIP DISPUTE. Makhadzi's 3 May 2023 statement concerns non-renewal of a contract and the handling of bookings. Her further remarks concern unpaid sales royalties. Neither she nor Open Mic has made any public claim about who owns the recordings. Conflating a royalty complaint with a masters dispute is the single most common error in this kind of story and it is not supported here.
THE ROYALTY ALLEGATIONS WERE CONTESTED IN PUBLIC, NOT LEFT UNANSWERED. Makhadzi said on 3 May 2023 that she had "never received any cent" of her album sales across three years and four albums. Open Mic's managing director, Nkateko Maluleke, initially declined to engage, citing confidentiality. Eight days later, on 11 May 2023, Open Mic changed position and went public: it said it had paid her R7.9 million directly plus R300,000 toward a house deposit in her name, and its lawyers demanded she retract the "not a single cent" claim as false and defamatory by noon the next day or face legal action. Neither side's figures have been independently audited. No adjudication, settlement or judgment resolving the payment dispute was located. It remains an unresolved factual disagreement between the two named parties, not an unanswered allegation, and it is reported as such. Crucially, Open Mic's rebuttal addresses only the payment claim. It contains no statement about who owns the masters, and the confidentiality position on the underlying contract itself was never withdrawn.
NO DISTRIBUTOR IS NAMED AND NONE SHOULD BE INFERRED. GS1 prefix 757572 is shared across Open Mic Productions, Makhadzi Entertainment, Wanitwa Mos Entertainment, Ejarden Entertainment, Nkosazana Daughter and KAMO MPHELA ENTERTAINMENT, and Kamo Mphela shows the same 757572 to 766214 migration at the same time. That pattern is consistent with a single South African intermediary. GS1's prefix-holder lookups were all blocked or empty on 30 September 2026, so the holder is unidentified. Do not complete the inference from this record.
THE REGISTRIES CONTRADICT EACH OTHER ON THREE RELEASES. On "My Love" (10 July 2020) and "Muya Wanga" (7 August 2020) Apple gives a credit in Makhadzi's own name while Deezer gives the label "Bellionare" (UPCs 5060726324632 and 5060726324649). On "Vho Mazwale" (14 July 2023) Apple gives her own name while Deezer gives "Soultec Records" (UPC 701798194550). Deezer's field is a label of release and Apple's is a phonogram credit, so the two are not strictly the same claim, but the discrepancy is unreconciled and is recorded rather than resolved.
DATE RANGES ARE RELEASE WINDOWS, NOT DEAL DATES. The announced date on this sheet, 3 May 2023, is the date of Makhadzi's public statement. It is not the commencement or termination date of any agreement. The first and last releases carrying a given credit bound when that credit was in use, nothing more.
CORPORATE IDENTITIES ARE UNRESOLVED. "Makhadzi Entertainment" and "Rita Dee Entertainment" are the names as they appear in registry credit lines. CIPC was unreachable or account-walled on 30 September 2026. Do not attribute a registration number, a director or a shareholder to either company on the strength of this record. Both are held in the directory as drafts flagged for research for exactly that reason.
Makhadzi stopped releasing records through Open Mic Productions in 2023 and started releasing them through her own company. Her masters did not follow her. As at 30 September 2026 the phonogram credit on four albums and roughly thirty further releases still reads Open Mic Productions, and every public statement either party has made concerns a management and bookings contract and unpaid sales royalties, not ownership of recordings.
This record documents who is credited as the owner of Makhadzi’s master recordings in each period of her career, on the evidence of three independent rights registries read on 30 September 2026. It does not document a contract, because no contract between the parties is public.
What the credit lines say
The phonogram symbol, the circled P, marks the owner of a sound recording as distinct from the owner of the song. It is delivered with the recording by whoever registers it and it is published unchanged on storefronts. It is the strongest routinely available evidence of master ownership, and it is not a contract.
Three credits appear across Makhadzi’s catalogue, in sequence:
Rita Dee Entertainment holds the credit on nine releases, from 4 May 2017 to 1 November 2019.
Open Mic Productions holds the credit on sixteen releases where Makhadzi is the lead artist, from 9 October 2020 to 9 June 2023, plus eighteen further releases where she appears as a featured artist. The sixteen lead releases include four albums: Kokovha (21 tracks, 2020), African Queen (21 tracks, 2021), Pain Ya Jealous (10 tracks, 2022) and African Queen 2.0 (22 tracks, 2022). That is 74 album tracks.
Makhadzi Entertainment holds the credit on 47 releases, from 26 May 2023 to 28 August 2026, issued under a separate artist profile on Apple Music and a separate artist profile on Deezer.
Nothing in any registry shows the Open Mic credit being replaced on the earlier recordings. The four albums still carry it. A change in who is credited on new releases is not evidence that ownership of old releases moved.
The fourteen day overlap
The first Makhadzi Entertainment credit is “Niazwifha”, released 26 May 2023. The last Open Mic credit on a Makhadzi lead release is “Noto Baiza”, released 9 June 2023. For fourteen days in mid 2023 both companies were issuing Makhadzi records as credited phonogram owner at the same time.
This matters because it rules out a clean handover date. Whatever ended in 2023 did not end on a single day with one company handing the artist to another.
One barcode pool, two rights holders
Every commercial release carries a UPC. The first six digits are a GS1 company prefix, issued to one subscriber, who then allocates serials from it.
Open Mic’s Makhadzi releases all draw on the prefix 757572. So do Makhadzi Entertainment’s first twelve releases, from 26 May 2023 to 22 September 2023. The serials do not sit in separate blocks. They interleave in date order across the two companies:
| Release | Date | Credited owner | UPC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Niazwifha | 26 May 2023 | Makhadzi Entertainment | 757572947546 |
| KHARILITSHE | 2 June 2023 | Open Mic Productions | 757572947874 |
| Noto Baiza | 9 June 2023 | Open Mic Productions | 757572948055 |
| Dear EX | 16 June 2023 | Makhadzi Entertainment | 757572948161 |
A single ascending sequence, alternating between two rights holders, means both were drawing from one pool held by one subscriber. That subscriber is neither company. The same 757572 prefix appears on releases credited to Wanitwa Mos Entertainment, Ejarden Entertainment, Nkosazana Daughter and KAMO MPHELA ENTERTAINMENT. It is an intermediary’s block.
From 5 April 2024 Makhadzi Entertainment’s releases switch to the prefix 766214. Kamo Mphela’s releases make the identical migration at almost the same time, from 757572951222 in September 2023 to 766214657743 in October 2023. Both prefixes therefore belong to intermediaries serving multiple South African labels.
The desk did not identify either prefix holder and is not naming one. GS1’s public prefix lookups were all unusable on 30 September 2026: verified-by-gs1 returned HTTP 403, grp.gs1.org returned a not-found page and gepir.gs1.org returned an empty body. Naming a distributor on pattern-matching alone would be exactly the error this publication exists to avoid.
What the parties said, and what they did not say
On 3 May 2023 Makhadzi issued a statement: “I have taken a decision to not renew the contract with Open Mic Productions so I can focus on my own company Makhadzi Entertainment and other business ventures.” And: “From now on, all bookings will be handled by my own company Makhadzi Entertainment.”
She separately alleged non-payment: “I have never received any cent of my sales”, adding “In this three years I dropped 4 albums” and “Some of my album reached platinum some gold”. She said she had signed “with open mic only for three years” and questioned a renewal she said was made without her: “how possible is that for you to renew my contract without coming to me”.
A letter attributed to Open Mic, quoted in the same reporting, describes “renewing or extending the contract period for an additional period of three (3) years with effect from the 09th of March 2023.”
Open Mic’s managing director Nkateko Maluleke declined to comment: “We will not be commenting on this issue as we are contractually bound by confidentiality provisions in the agreement entered into with our artist Makhadzi.”
Not one of these statements mentions who owns the master recordings. The dispute as stated publicly is about contract renewal, bookings and unpaid sales royalties. The royalty allegations are allegations, denied by nobody and confirmed by nobody, and remain unresolved on the public record.
Where the registries disagree
Two contradictions were found and are recorded rather than smoothed over.
On “My Love” (10 July 2020) and “Muya Wanga” (7 August 2020), Apple returns a phonogram credit in Makhadzi’s own name dated 2019, while Deezer returns the label “Bellionare” (UPCs 5060726324632 and 5060726324649). On “Vho Mazwale” (14 July 2023), Apple returns a credit in Makhadzi’s own name while Deezer returns “Soultec Records” (UPC 701798194550).
Deezer’s field is a label of release and Apple’s is a phonogram credit, so these are not strictly the same claim, but on these three releases the two registries point at different companies and neither reading has been reconciled.
What could not be established
Publishing. No document reviewed touches the ownership or administration of Makhadzi’s compositions, and no collecting society repertory search resolved. Publishing is entirely unestablished.
Consideration. No amount, advance, royalty rate or equity figure appears in any source. Nothing was disclosed.
Corporate detail. South Africa’s CIPC was unusable on 30 September 2026: bizportal.gov.za was unreachable and eservices.cipc.co.za is account-walled. Registration numbers, directors and shareholders for Makhadzi Entertainment and Rita Dee Entertainment are not established.
Territory and term. No credit line states a territory. The South African and United States Apple storefronts return byte-identical credits, so no territorial carve-out is visible, but no document states a contractual territory or term.
Whether any reversion, buyback or assignment of the Open Mic masters has since occurred. Nothing indicates one. Nothing rules one out.
