DJ Tambran on the record about City Hall

On Friday, while most Belize City entertainers were busy taking care of last minute preparations for the Annual Carnival Road March, Lennox ‘DJ Tambran’ Young, proprietor of Tambran’s Music Depot, was being put out of business.  The veteran disc jockey, who is currently embroiled in a legal battle with the Belize City Council over unpaid rent and damaged property, was ordered to shut down his record store forthwith.  The latest move by CitCo comes less than two weeks before Justice Minnet Hafiz hands down a decision on the matter.  Despite claims that he has been operating without a trade license, Tambran says he recently won a case against CitCo on that particular issue.  CitCo, he argues, is in clear violation of an existing contract which will expire in April 2013.

Lennox ‘DJ Tambran’ Young, Business Owner, Commercial Center

Lennox ‘DJ Tambran’ Young

“They came there on Friday.  They sent one of the officers to make sure that my business is closed.  This is September time [and] a lot of my customers want to know why I am closed.  I’m here on Channel Five to let them know that this is a thing that is going on with Darrell Bradley and me, myself and my business.  Like I said last time on the TV, this is in front of the Supreme Court but all this is something that they want me out because they want to give it to someone else.  But, my thing is here today is that I’m telling the Belizean public that, you know what, I had a case on the fifteenth of this month which I won for a trade license, what they say well “you know, you can‘t operate your business without one.”  I went to the court and I won that case.  I won that case because I’m there [at the Commercial Center] and they are trying to squeeze me and I let everybody know in that courtroom that I am there because obviously we have all this matter in front of the Supreme Court.  I even explained to the judge that day that I noh even get wah single letter from the [Belize City] Council, which Darrell Bradley is the mayor, stating that, “you know what we wahn try deal wid yoh eena wah different way but at the same time we wah let you know that this business haftu clothes down.”  There is no kinda compliance from the city council.  To me this is contempt of court and this is a lawyer who is the mayor of Belize.”

Isani Cayetano

“Your contract extends until mid-April 2013.  They have moved to evict you and to shut down your operation.  Do you believe that they are in material breach of this particular agreement?”

Lennox ‘DJ Tambran’ Young

“Of course they are because we are all citizens of Belize and I look at it that if you have a contract you’re supposed to honor that contract, you know, and I look at it that not because of U.D.P. is the boss or they are in power they supposed to show all their muscles and try to squeeze a black man, especially a poor business of my sort trying to make a dollar out there and serving the Belizean people in a proper way.  I am there as an honest business.  I am one of the popular deejays, my music, I have my customers and this is not right.  This is not the right way to do things because if you have a contract and it’s up in April 2013, you need to honor that.  If you don’t honor that you’re gonna pay every single cent back to me, from then to now.”

The matter, which is currently before Justice Hafiz, will be decided on September seventeenth.  DJ Tambran is being represented by attorney Karim Musa, while attorney Alifah Elrington-Hyde appears on behalf of CitCo.