Hugh - I hear you on this, I lived in South Africa through Apartheid, the Afrikaners were just as paranoid, and as you have noticed our new masters have some of the nasty habits of the old masters. One knows from one sees and it is a pity that we all had to see what we did during that period.

I remember you from the 80's, as well as a master musician you were a political icon. I received many a head shake from my 'betters', for a white boy to listen to you was considered subversive and made me 'unreliable' in a pinch. Now it is subversive to offer criticism or highlight corruption.

Sadly the ANC missed a massive opportunity and have acted in text book Franz Fanon fashion, I never saw it coming, I thought it would have been a new day but it was just more of the same only for a different crowd.

Don't loose hope though, you have been for many years and continue to be an inspiration for many.

Winston McSmith, Edinburgh via Cape Town,

Peter, 'supply and demand' merely makes it more baffling why some of the most world-renowned musicians aren't getting played in their own country. International recognition is generally a symptom of popularity transcending local culture, not of people who can't sell at home moving abroad for success.

I can think of very few British bands which have been big in the US but not in the UK for example, mostly if you're big abroad you're a source of pride - and a guarunteed draw - at home.

Masekela is not the only one finding this a problem, he's named several other major artists having the same trouble - and I'd hardly say Ladysmith Black Mambazo are a tiny niche product. If you think the South African government doesn't have enough clout to lean on muscial promoters/venue holders, you're extremely naive.

Simon Saunders, Ipswich,

Peter Harris is spot on. It is doubtful whether the SA government has an agenda when it comes to music. They are smothered under massive problems - many of them of their own making - to be bothered with something as peripheral and esoteric as perceived subversive music. If they did have such an agenda it would be unworkable. They are too inept to make one work anyway. My guess that any nod towards music in South Africa is probably driven by populist considerations. In that they are probably more like 'Cool Tone' B-liar and 'Arctic Monkeys' Brown than Hitler, who did legislate against "dangerous" Jewish and Soviet music. I think what the SA population choose to listen to is what they choose to listen to, and oviously it is not to Hugh Masekela's music. Masekela is having a sour grapes moment.

David Allen, Marietta, USA

Hugh Masekela may have some valid, if poorly articulated, points about post-apartheid South Africa, but is he not suffering from myopia in that it is unlikely that someone occupying the niche that he does in the musical world is going to be kept busy performing in one country alone. As inept as they are, the South African government are hardly likely to hold much sway with impresarios who want to promote a musician of Mr Masekela's calibre. Perhaps he should trade in his sour grapes for a brief lesson on the dynamics of supply and demand.

Peter Harris, London,

I lived in SA through all that too and was back last year and sadly Hugh is right.Not about music per se but the lack of real reconciliation and the rest he mentions..

M McGregor, Tunbridge Wells, Kent