Sama fiasco blamed on human error
‘When we found out we acted on it to rectify our mistake’
THE RECORDING Industry of SA (RiSA) and the SA Music Awards (Sama) office said human error and oversight lead to two artists being struck off the nominees list.
According to the Samas office, the submissions of Swati artist Sands and local DJ Mobi Dixon did not align with the rules of the awards.
Just two weeks after the nominations were announced, the office made a further announcement: to remove Tigi by Sands, which was nominated in the Record of the Year category, and Lake by the Ocean by Mobi Dixon, which was up for Best Remix.
Chief operating officer (COO) at RiSA and the Samas office, Thobela Dlamini, told The Star the awards have taken ownership of their mistake and acknowledge the oversight.
“We were not stubborn when we found out and we acted on it to rectify our mistake,” said Dlamini.
Sands, whose real name is Sandziso Matsebula, a citizen of eSwatini (formerly Swaziland), was excluded from being considered for a Sama in the Record of the Year category, while Mobi Dixon’s song was a remix of an international song, which is in contravention of the Sama rules.
Dlamini said: “When an artist like Mobi Dixon submits music, we all just take this thing that no, he is South African.
“It was an oversight from our side, in terms of taking it too light that the song comes from abroad. We didn’t check it. What we did is we checked who the remixer was and listened to it.
“We checked it if was a remix or not. We do those particular verifications through our vexing process but the only thing that did not happen was finding out the originality of the song.
“That is the only flop I would say, which I will take personally because obviously the buck stops with me,” said Dlamini.
He said the discrepancy was picked up after industry players told the office that the song was not from South Africa.
Dlamini hit back at comments that previous Sama winner DJSbu won for a remix song of an original track by Josh Groban, Remember When It Rained.
“Maybe, by that time the rules did not say what we are saying now… We change the rules time and time again, so we can craft this thing to make sense.”
He confirmed that at this stage, no further disqualifications were going to be announced, however further internal investigations are still on-going.
Mobi Dixon took to social media and said he respected the decision by the board. “I truly respect The Samas as SA’s flagship awards ceremony… I hope they can learn from this mistake and grow from it,” he said.