THE South African Traditional Music Awards (Satmas) have apologised for awarding scathamiya group Nombika Black Boys instead of Ababekezeli.
Last week, Daily Sun published that Nombika Black Boys were not nominated in the mbaqanga category, yet they won.
In that article, the leader of Ababekezeli, Sizwe Zakwe, said: “This is the biggest blunder in the history of Satmas. There were only two nominees in our category and both of us are mbaqanga artists. We were surprised when a scathamiya group, Nombika Black Boys, were announced as winners of Best Mbaqanga Artist. What was more suspicious was that this group was not nominated in the mbaqanga category and they do not even sing mbaqanga music.
But now the Satmas have apologised for their mistake.
Satmas CEO Zandile Ndzimande said: “The misrepresentation was totally a misfortune during printing, when an error that happened during the filtering process of generating the report spreadsheet.
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“The system used during auditing prints an envelopes per category, so when categories follow one another back to back, the printing of names can unfortunately be doubled or repeated.
“With the Best Iscathamiya and the Best Mbaqanga categories running back to back, the name printing doubled and Nombika Black Boys got to be allocated a second time around into the wrong envelope meant for the winner in the Mbaqanga Category.
“This is one oversight that has not happened in many years. For the past 17 years, the Satmas results have been and still are audited by a reputable auditing firm with an outstanding track record,” she continued.
But she would not disclose the name of the auditing firm.
She said they have communicated with Nombika Black Boys and clarified the unfortunate mix-up.
“There is no dispute to the fact that the award should be reallocated to the rightful contenders of the Best Mbaqanga category, where the winner has already been determined according to the audited results of the category and will soon be announced once all processes have been followed.
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“The Satmas team wishes to apologise for any inconvenience that this unforeseen occurrence might have caused to all supporters and followers of Ababekezeli, Trevor TMV, Nombika Black Boys and the Satma constituency at large,” said Zandile.
Spokesperson for Nombika Black Boys, Thandeka Mbhele, had not answered the phone and text messages at the time of publication.
Sizwe Zakwe said: “We’re glad they realised and corrected their mistake. We hope they don’t repeat this mistake again.”
