Babsy Mlangeni, the Soweto born and entrepreneur will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 23rd South African Music Awards.
Born 1943, Mlangeni attended the Athlone School for the Blind in Cape Town.
It was while at Athlone that took up the guitar as the school encouraged students to learn to play different instruments. This led to the decision to form the All Rounders when they left school.
Due to the lack of work for blind people, they brought on other blind and sighted musicians including Koloi Lebona, John Mothuping, Micky Lebona, Archie Kgwadi and Simon Falatsi.
He’s known for hits such as Ba Kae, Who’s the Boss, Special Angels, of which some collaborated with Steve Kekana.
Mlangeni will be honoured alongside Gospel sensation guru Rebecca Malope and kwaai-jazz legend Don “Mahwetsha” Laka.
RiSA CEO Nhlanhla Sibisi stated: “We as the SAMA organisers value these honours highly. We believe that our veteran who served the industry with unmatched dedication and gave us timeless music should never be forgotten by history, as such we look forward to etching the names of Rebecca Malope, Don Laka and Babsy Mlangeni in our prestigious list of lifetime achievers.
We say well done on such colourful careers and let this be a token of our appreciation of your talent as a nation.”
The awards are scheduled for May 27 at Sun City, North West Province.
Meanwhile, Robbie “Ntsimbi” Malinga is Gatvol.
The gravel voiced claims his album Robbie Malinga has been disqualified by the RiSA, the organizers of the SAMA awards.
At the center of controversy is that an unidentified female panelist complained about its eligibility, citing failure to meet the awards’ criteria due to some songs allegedly being “lifted” off other artists’ albums.
RiSA CEO Nhlanhla Sibisi says that the panel would meet to discuss the album again in the wake of the complaint. There would be a full investigation into the eligibility of the album before any decision is made.
“A decision was made after debates and procedures to nominate the album, and the committee have not rebutted their original decision. They will meet again to discuss it in light of the complaint but we will not be pressured into doing a rushed job because the event is almost here,” he explained.
If they found a reason, which warranted “disqualification” they would act upon it, says Sibisi.
It seems controversy never evades SAMAs or kanjani?
