HARARE - The planned tour of Zimbabwe this month end by two popular American gospel artistes Cece Winans and Pastor Donnie McClurkin is off.

Red Ink Events, who were behind the efforts to bring the popular duo to Zimbabwe, failed to raise adequate funds to bankroll the concert.

“Unfortunately we have had to cancel the Cece Winans and Donnie McClurkin concert, which was going to be one of the biggest gospel concerts to be held in the country this year”, Red Ink Events spokesperson Ndumiso Ndlovu told the Daily News yesterday.

“We did not manage to secure adequate sponsorship by the deadline, which was this past Friday. It is very disappointing but there is nothing we can do,” said Ndlovu.

The Red Ink Events spokesperson added that the two popular gospel artistes will however still be touring southern Africa at the end of the month. Winans and McClurkin will now only hold concerts in South Africa and Swaziland.

“We engaged many potential sponsors we thought would help us stage a spectacular concert that would match the profile of these international artistes but unfortunately it all came to nought,” he said.

Early this year Red Ink Events hosted a successful concert featuring an American gospel Grammy awards nominee and three time-Stellar award winner Emanuel Lee Lambert Jr.

Lambert Jr better known as Da T.R.U.T.H toured Zimbabwe as part of his Love, Hope War Africa Tour.