Times Of Swaziland: SITF SWAMA DANCE COMPETITION CONFLICT SITF SWAMA DANCE COMPETITION CONFLICT ================================================================================ BY KWAZI MASUKU on 14/09/2017 01:44:00 MBABANE –The Swaziland Artists and Music Association has been implicated in a Swaziland International Trade Fair dance competition scandal. SWAMA courtesy of the SITF hosted a dance competition under the theme ‘Battle of the Dancers 2017’ where 10 groups competed. The scandal as declared by the aggrieved groups was that there was a conflict of interest for the panel of judges as some have relations with some of the participants. The judges were three in total and one of them is a member of the renowned Pelepele Dance group. The judges were identified as Paul Maseko (who is a member of Pelepele), Nobuhle (artist) and Vice Nkambule who is popularly known for renowned kwaito group Vibemo. The three judges were paid E1500 for the whole competition. This means that they shared E500 each. Ironically the winners, Bind My Soul, a group that comprises of two girls are also members of Pelepele dance group; as mentioned, one of the judges, Paul Maseko is a Pelepele member as well. Another member of the panel of judges, Nobuhle, is a popular female kwaito artist .During the MTN SWAMA Awards held at the Royal Swazi Convention Centre about a month ago; Nobuhle had a performance where the winning group at the Trade Fair Dance competition were her dancers. Simply put, the winners of the competition (Bind My Soul) previously worked for one of the judges. Runners-up of the competition, Zee Robots, went home with E2000 while the third placed dance group (DP Legends) got E1000. The competition started as eliminations on September 4, 2017 and ended with the finals held two days later at Mavuso Exhibition and Trade Centre.