Times Of Swaziland: MTN SWAMA AWARDS  CLEAR  UP VAGUE MISCONCEPTIONS

MTN SWAMA AWARDS  CLEAR  UP VAGUE MISCONCEPTIONS
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 BY NONDUMISO MSIBI on 11/07/2018 04:32:00


MBABANE – MTN SWAMA awards have cleared the vague misconceptions around the
forthcoming awards to take place December 1.
MTN SWAMA awards have issued out a press statement where the final stage of the
post-verification of the nominees phase for the second MTN SWAMA Awards.The
process has been conducted , concluded swiftly and also reveals that voting
lines for this year’s MTN SWAMA Awards have been opened.
MTN SWAMA President Melusi Zox Dlamini has stated that the nominees’
post-verification process, which ideally should not exceed more than seven days
as per global standards, was instituted and concluded last Friday, and that the
panel of judges concluded it within reasonable time.
The statement further went on to reveal that a small but significant number of
artists who had been nominated by the MTN SWAMA awards, who had considered the
public nominations list, duly declined nomination.
“Obviously, they were within their rights to do so, as is done elsewhere
globally. This then led to a back-and-forth process of consolidating the final
nominees, resulting in a few omissions and commissions, as human nature would
have it. To ensure that such anomalies are quickly addressed, the final
post-verification process was duly instituted,” reads part of the press
statement.
On the document, it is stated that the production team that worked on graphics
had to juggle between the original judges list and the pre-verified one,
resulting in few human errors which were immediately picked up by the panel of 
judges, and as prescribed by the processes, they activated the post-verification
process.
After the unveiling of the nominees last Saturday, two artists requested to
withdraw from the dog-eat-dog race, and since this request was made within seven
days of announcement, MTN SWAMA panel of judges accepted it.
Now, taking these findings into consideration, MTN SWAMA panel of judges which
remains anonymous – for impartiality purposes, resolved the following.
These resolutions are binding and are being applied with immediate effect:
l Artist King Terry, who had been erroneously included in the Male Artist of the
Year category, is hereby being withdrawn from that particular category. The
category requirement was an album released before May 30, 2018, and his missed
the deadline. Perhaps the good side of the coin is that he qualifies for
consideration in next year’s Awards.
l Artist Illa Penboy, who was in the pre-verified list of nominees, has been
re-instated in the Male Artist of the Year category after verifying that he
indeed has a valid album.
Remember, the category requirement is an album released within the stipulated
time frame.
l Gospel artists Phathwakahle and Nduduzo Matse, who were in the pre-verified
list but missed announcement under the Best Gospel Artist category, are hereby
being retained in the post-verified list. This means that they are nominees
under the Best Gospel Artist category, alongside those who were announced.
l Furthermore, for the same reasons, Phathwakahle has been re-instated in the
Female Artist of the Year category.
l Country music duo Dusty and Stones have been removed from the Artist of the
Year category, a category that requires the release of an album within the
stipulated time frame. However, they remain nominated in the Best County
category, and rightfully so as they had new singles out during the year under
review.
l Finally, Miss Trophy (who was nominated in the Best RNB Category) and Haem-O
(who was nominated in the Best Collaboration and Best Video categories)
requested to forego this year’s nomination, and the judges have duly granted
them that right. However, being the final post-verification process, this means
that the grace period for withdrawal has now elapsed, hence no withdrawals,
reviews, additions, will be accepted going forward.
The press document clearly states that as much as the MTN SWAMA Awards
initiative is at its infancy, the post-verification process will always be
instituted whenever the need arises in the next years to come so as to ensure
that the Awards are  credible, transparent, and fair.