SAMAs strip singer Pulane Maphari of an award, she says ‘it wasn’t intentional’ 

South African gospel singer Pulane Maphari’s recent award from the South African Music Awards has been withdrawn. 
 
According to a statement by the Recording Industry of SA (Risa), the accolade for Best Contemporary Faith was withdrawn as Maphari bagged it at its 28th ceremony recently. 
 
As per a report by TshisaLIVE, the decision comes after the musician’s Sacrificial Worship (Live) project is believed that it was repackaged, renamed, and paraded as an album she released in 2020 as a new body of work and submitted for 2021. 
 
As a result, Risa CEO Nhlanhla Sibisi has suspended the Sama project team and instituted internal disciplinary processes. 
 
Furthermore, the artist was disqualified pending further investigations and Risa said the probe was underway to determine whether further action needed to be taken. 
 


 
“The integrity of the Sama is of the utmost importance. We take seriously any complaint we receive regarding how the winners are chosen and the conduct of our office and the panel of judges. The Samas must be artist-driven and focused,” said Sibisi. 
 
“As a result, I have started direct engagements with record companies and artists, and I will be proposing a major overhaul of our structure, systems, and processes in the coming weeks and will make the necessary announcements before the end of September.” 
 
The awards ceremony took place last month in North West, Rustenburg and it was heavily criticised by music artists. 
 
According to Drum and News24, Maphari has also shared her side of the story, saying she didn’t plan to mislead the SAMAs. 
 
“I thought it was a misunderstanding because I hadn’t received any communication from the SAMAs. I was at church and a friend sent me a link to the article,” she tells Drum.  
 
“I am an independent artist. I applied for the awards by myself. I did not know some of the rules. I didn’t repackage the album so I could win. It was not intentional. 
 
“I did a studio project, Restorative Breathe of Life as a new artist and because of the lockdown, I couldn’t perform. We then came up with the idea to do a live recording and we did Sacrificial Worship. I entered it into the SAMAs.”  
 
Main Image: Pulane Maphari/Instagram 
https://www.instagram.com/pulanemaphari 

The post SAMAs strip singer Pulane Maphari of an award, she says ‘it wasn’t intentional’  appeared first on Entertainment SA - South African Entertainment News, Celebrity and Lifestyle Online Magazine & Entertainment.



Post a Comment

Previous Post Next Post