SOCIAL media was fired up on Saturday, 18 November and Sunday, 19 November after Kelly Khumalo came for the South African Music Awards (Samas) and fellow musician, Ntokozo Mbambo.
The Empini singer accused the Samas of arranging Ntokozo’s win.
This after she won three awards: Album of The Year, Best Contemporary Faith Album and Female Artist of The Year, which Kelly was also nominated for.
Kelly (39) went on a X (previously Twitter) rant and wrote multiple tweets.
In one of her tweets, she wrote: “Arranged winnings, fuseg.”
“Even Ntokozo knows that numbers don’t lie. We’re not afraid of her. Fuseg Samas,” she wrote in another tweet.
Kelly's tweets have since been deleted, but the Sun Team managed to take screenshots of some of the tweets before they were deleted.
In response to Kelly, Sama spokesman, Lesley Mofokeng said her comments were unfortunate.
“We saw the remarks on social media and we found them to be unfortunate and regrettable. We send our congratulations to all the SAMA29 winners who were honoured, they are deserving and must be celebrated.
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“A spectacular world class production was delivered with the talented hosts DJ Sabby and Nomalanga Shozi, not forgetting the guest presenters. A big congratulations to all who were involved in the show and the support from South African music fans,” he said.
He also explained how the judging process goes.
“Judges are selected from the music industry, they are practitioners, experts and authorities in their respective genres such as music critics, journalists, university lecturers and music compilers. They input their scores electronically without meeting each other or even knowing their identities. These scores are then audited by a reputable auditing firm to decide the list of nominees and winners," he said.
Contacted for comment, Kelly’s manager, Khothatso Tsotesi didn’t respond to questions sent, while Ntokozo’s management declined to comment.
Gospel singers such as Rebecca Mlaope, Hle, Brenda Mtambo, Joyous Celebration and many others have gone on X to congratulate Ntokozo, saying she deserves the win.
