SAMA29 Has Been Postponed
The 29th edition of the South African Music Industry has been postponed. According to multiple sources, the KZN Government cancelled the sponsorship of SAMAs which were set to cost the province some huge sums of money.
The Music Awards ceremony, scheduled to take place in Durban in November, was a topic of conversation for many until the unfortunate news of its postponement.
The main organizer of SAMA, Recording Industry of South Africa (RiSA) has issued a statement, denying that the event was intended to use as a conduit for looting and have promised to get to the root of the matter and hopefully get things resolved.
“The SAMA remains the largest, most prestigious, inclusive and representative music awards event in the South African music landscape. We continue to attract considerable attention and support as well as market-leading viewership among televised music awards shows across the continent. We note with dismay that a prestigious, credible and apolitical national cultural asset that has been in operation for 29 uninterrupted years, longer than any other award ceremony in South Africa and the continent, has been characterised as a conduit for looting. This is an assertion that we as RISA strongly rebuke. It is problematic that an institution of great importance to the pulse of our cultural economy has been violated for cheap politicking. What has been lost in all of the resultant noise are the economic benefits of hosting a show of this magnitude for any city or province. The SAMA is not a superfluous party, any such assertion flies in the face of the contribution made by the SAMA to the Mzansi Golden Economy. It stood to benefit the creative sector as well as to ignite a number of other economies including tourism, hospitality, retail, transportation and the informal sector.” – RiSA