By Spy Uganda
Troubled former TV star Justine Nameere is spending sleepless nights after Mengo Chief Magistrates court set the date for ruling in a case she is accused of allegedly failing to pay Shs33m to the company that used to produce her TV shows.
Chief Magistrate Irene Nambatya set November 14th for the ruling of the case that was filed by the film company known as Traited Bros limited, which claims that Nameere owes the Shs18M, which the contractual sum they agreed before filming her shows. They also claim that this money has since accumulated interest and attracted legal fees, hence the sum shooting to Shs33m.
The film company thus sought intervention of the Court in order to recover their money!
Trouble for Nameere started in 2013 when she had just joined Urban TV’s ‘Life and People’ show after being fired from NTV. She joined Urban TV and started the same show in order to out-compete her former employers but failed to sponsor production for the same.
One of the directors of Traited Bros James Rafiki revealed that he was contracted by Nameere to supply all production materials for the show but she later failed to pay for the services like they had agreed.
“Nameere had nothing we used all expensive equipment to cover her show but when she failed to attract sponsors she just abandoned the show without paying us’.” Rafiki said.
He added that through their lawyers of Kangaho and Company Advocates, they filed a case under file no 2346/19 of Mengo court but since then Nameere has never appeared in court.
However, when our reporter contacted Nameere for a comment about the saga, she sent us a long statement explaining her position and below is what she wrote;
“I was doing my work under my production House- Life and People productions Ltd in partnership with Elite Media Ltd.
The budget of my work including research, paying my administrator; editors; crew had never added up to Shs17m.
Elite Media and my company have worked a lot in terms of barter and other business ways that I may not need to go into. So how then do I owe one person 17 million Uganda shillings? In the beginning of my shooting plans, I hired a certain guy who had been recommended by somebody I met in the corridors of business.
The person told me that this Traited Bros guy had given him a proposal to shoot an advert but he did not hire him because he had somebody who does that for him usually.
So I gave the Traited bros guy business starting with a documentary I did for a friend from the UK but he did not know how to produce good work in terms of standard shoot; cut away and other things required from a professional camera person.
Even former boss Micheal Owor, our boss at Urban TV did complain about the pictures, cutting, sound and all. Yet what I was looking for was not mediocrity; we needed to do a show for the viewers and give a sponsor worth for their money.
So I informed the guy what was lacking; I tried to avail him with different pieces of work for reference but still could not get it
right. Later I found out from somebody in the production business that he actually does not do camera work or pre or post-production work but he just co-owns equipment with someone else and simply hires it out to people to use it and they pay him.
Being that still the arrangement of hiring him was temporary because I was in talks with a production house whose work I trusted but we had not yet concluded, I took it easy, paid off the guy the money he had worked for so far and repudiated the one month contract.( that contract which he goes around showing to people).
He started to ask for the whole amount saying he had already dedicated his whole month to filming my show and me ending the contract was illegal according to him.
So he wanted a pay for the whole month even when he did not work which in business is quite impossible. The core term of the contract was the product; there was a clear description of what we needed to achieve which he failed to because he could not deliver it; as in the picture, sound, professional shots and all.
At some point hired a camera person to come salvage the situation yet I had already paid this guy for two cameramen. He had given me a budget of two cameramen but both turned up only once and he started to do the camera work himself yet he knew he could not do camera work much as he had a business of hiring cameras out. So he started to send threats, insults, saying I either give him money or he will go to tabloids and tell them this and that.
I did not get time to take him seriously because I did not believe a mature person with 3 kids was behaving that way and I have been so busy; working; studying; projects and all.
I honestly was not scared by his threats because my conscience is clear.
I have the receipts and all that he signed to show proof of payment for the money he received.
Why is he coming to the media if his intention is to take Justine to court? And why is he coming out when my new show is due to air? These are people who have nature problems and its unfortunate that it’s me he tried to victimize but I chose to stay calm because there are enormous solutions to such encounters.
A friend of mine jokingly told me that “definitely somebody will come up with something negative when your program is ready to air, just to confuse your viewers, sponsors and you but take heart.”
And now I see that but I need to keep focused because of every body close to me knows how much I have given for my show and projects; I work honestly hard and I value my teammates just the way they value me because we all gain from one another. I have not received any summons from him. My lawyer spoke with the law firm indicated in this and they seem to be washing their hands of the whole thing.
Anyway all in all this guy wanted to use blackmail to get the money that he did not work for but that’s not how life operates; you need to earn money not steal or blackmail people to get it.
I understand many people try to blackmail people in the public eye in a number of ways so as to get money out of them but me I resisted that because my conscience is clear.
By the time I got to know about these claims, I was busy with my team meeting certain clients who want us to film different advert concepts for them because we do not only do a show but also adverts and other shows that we plan to get on air soon.
Someone is taking advantage of the fact that I have a name to protect to do all sorts of things to get easy money. The youth should desist from this by the way.
I have had my fair share of blows and heavy winds but that contributed so much to how far God has brought me in my life.
The struggle continues and my team and I are doing our best to deliver to our viewers and also help the sponsors achieve their aims for partnering with us.
I will use the reasonable means I know as a law-abiding citizen, on handling this issue and God will reveal the truth because you can never hide the truth.”
