THE SOUTH African Music Awards are a sham.
This is the feeling of artists and a manager I had a chat with at the awards ceremony held at Sun City this past weekend.
Scores of attendants who purchased VIP after party tickets also complaint of poor service as a result of lack of beverages, considering the amount paid.
The spokesperson for the awards Lesley Mofokeng, also failed to address serious concerns raised during interview with T-Bo Touch on his Metro FM afternoon drive show on Tuesday.
Mofokeng instead, promised to engage -Risa organisers of the awards- and its management but for me this sounded more like a tired, old record.
When asked what went wrong Mofokeng said:” It seems a lot of things went terribly wrong and I promise to engage with Risa and management to address the concerns and I promise to share that with the nation,” he was quoted.
Burning issues such as nepotism, favouritism seem to be the order of the day at the SAMAs. The only thing that caught my eye was a superb production. Kudos to that company.
One Amapiano female DJ Lady Du did not take kind to such treatment and lashed out at the organisers’ on her twitter.
She accused the organising committee of nepotism. She also revealed that the artist who won the biggest award on the night is allegedly “managed by a person who bagged the tender for organising artists who performed on the night”.
According to ZAlebs, she further revealed that “a lot of musicians did not attend the ceremony because they already knew who was going to win”.
Lady Du was quoted also as having said she spoke out after the controversial show because she “doesn’t work for people that control her brand.”
She was joined by another Amapiano king DJ Maphorisa who also vented his disregard and said “SAMA needs to respect us”.
All these are serious allegations could make or break this prestigious awards- that are punted in mzansi as our Grammy’s.
Irate label owner Lance Stehr said ‘this madness will not stop anytime soon’.
SAMAs inefficiency, lack of planning and poor organisational structure is the reason why sponsors no longer want to associate their brands with these awards.
So, Mr Mofokeng we await the post report.
