AT the launch of the KZN Entertainment Awards, chairman Xolani Majozi announced winners would walk away with R100 000, while the Most Loved Star winner walked away with R500 000.
But Xolani revealed that as far as funding is concerned, nothing has been finalised.
“At the moment, we have not secured any funders or sponsors. We’re still negotiating with the hope they come through,” said Xolani.
“But we’re talking to various organisations and government departments.”
The awards ceremony was set to take place on 15 December.
Earlier this week, Xolani said the awards were flawed as they failed to inform the nominees.
Non-communication, coupled with conflict of interest and a lack of transparency, have seen several artists withdraw.
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Maskandi artist Mthandeni “Igcokama elisha” Manqele and Mdu Ngcobo co-founder of the Durban Jazz Festival, were the first to announce their withdrawal.
Mthandeni cited lack of communication, while Mdu’s gripe was conflict of interest.
In the last few days, more artists, including, DJ Bongs, DJ Sox, Izingane Zoma, Sipho Ndaba, the founder of the Last Dance Music Festival, Phumlani “Imfezemnyama” Khumalo also withdrew.
Sipho cited lack of transparency as the main reason of his withdrawal.
“I withdrew because I wasn’t notified about this, but more importantly there’s no transparency in these awards,” he said. Its organisers, funders or sponsors are faceless people, we don’t know who are they.
“There’s been no communication before or after we were nominated, which raised a lot of questions. I’ve queried with relevant structures at provincial and national level and nobody knows anything about these awards. This means we were not represented at the launch. As a result, we are not participating in this,” said Sipho.
Imfezemnyama said: “I don’t know who put my name in these awards and I don’t appreciate it at all. I decided not to enter such competitions again. I even destroyed the awards I had.”
Xolani said this was a learning curve for the organisers.
