Kamogelo Olaitan
A gospel singer who walked away with the Best Contemporary Faith Album gong at the South African Music Awards has forfeited her award for allegedly misleading the organisation.
The artist, Pulane Maphari from Welkom in the Free State, has also been barred from entering the awards until further investigation.
The SAMAs announced on Tuesday that Maphari had repackaged and renamed an album she had released in 2020 “and paraded it as a new body of work and submitted it for 2021 consideration with the same track-listing”.
The award will now be handed over to Denga “Kingdmusic” Takalani who was nominated in the same category as Maphari.
The Recording Industry of South Africa said in a statement that “it has come to the attention of the office” that Maphari had repackaged earlier work and submitted it for consideration. “This is in clear violation of the rules of the SAMA and equals an automatic disqualification.”
Speaking to Drum Magazine, Maphari denied intentionally repackaging the album to enter the SAMAs.
“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,” she said.
“It was a mistake. I had no knowledge and as a woman of God, I know my journey has not ended,” she added.
To be eligible for a SAMA, an album must only contain no less than four new tracks of previously unreleased songs. Remixes are excluded.
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