The organisers of the South African Music Awards (SAMA 28) have reacted to the poor turnout of this year, 2022’s event.
The awards took place on the 27th and 28th of August, Saturday, and Sunday night, but the complaints from notable celebrities like Makhadzi, Zakes Bantwini, and Lady Du flooded the socials.
It is believed by a huge number of people that corruption has penetrated the awards, hence the shock at some of the winners announced, including Artists of the Year.
According to Sunday World, SAMA’s organiser Nhlanhla Sibisi embraced the blame, saying they will do better next year.
We gave total power to the public to nominate the artist of the year. This was the biggest mistake and we regret it,” said Sibisi.
“We also allowed the public to vote for the artist of the year, this weakened our internal controls because the public vote took over and controlled the voting process. We also failed to engage with the artists, as a result, most of them did not know how the judging process worked.
“We are therefore pleading with the public not to blame the artists because they followed all the terms and conditions and won. We are to blame, we are at fault and we will do better next time.”
Nhlanhla Sibisi further revealed that the lack of enough money also contributed to the poor organisation of the event and venue as they initially planned to use Sun Arena but changed to Sun City.
