Legal battle looms over SA Amapiano Awards

THE first annual SA Amapiano Awards have been marred by a legal battle between the organisers and non-profit organisation Amapiano Awards, which claims the concept was stolen from them.

Last week, the first annual SA Amapiano Awards announced their nominations for the awards set to take place in October.

The awards, which include nominations for popular Amapiano hitmakers, Dbn Gogo and Kabza De Small, were started to give recognition to the artists and performers leading the sound that has found itself at the forefront of music culture.

The upcoming event has been marred by allegations from non-profit organisation Amapiano Awards that DJ Qness Ndlovu stole the concept for the awards from them.

Lawyer Kevin Smith of Gani Mayet Attorneys, acting on behalf of Amapiano Awards, issued Saapa organisers, Amapiano Governing Body and nominees, with cease and desist letters this week.

In the letter to the organisers, Smith claimed that his client, Famida Omar, registered the awards concept and the company in October 2019.

“It is with great sadness that it has come to our client’s attention that its concept for the Amapiano Awards has been replicated and rebranded to the ‘South African Amapiano Awards’ without its consent and authorisation,” the lawyer wrote.

Smith further claimed that Ndlovu was a member of Amapiano Awards’ planning committee as a public relations manager, and accused the DJ of abandoning his duties to start the SA Amapiano Awards.

In the letter, Amapiano Awards demanded that SA Amapiano Awards cease and desist from moving forward with the awards, and delete all social media and media posts, and pages which feature any mention of the SA Amapiano Awards.

In response, Ndlovu hosted a virtual media briefing yesterday where he said that the organisation was aware that cease and desist letters had also been sent to SA Amapiano Awards nominees.

“These rumours are nothing more than baseless claims made by opportunists looking to appropriate black culture and as SA Amapiano Awards we will not allow anyone to intimidate the nominees for the work that we are doing,” he said.

The DJ further announced that the live awards ceremony will take place on October 23 at the Sandton Convention Centre.

The chief executive of MOTV Tshepiso Moeletsi, who attended the briefing on the behalf of Amapiano Awards, however, spoke up during the Zoom media briefing and accused Ndlovu of stealing the idea.

“I believe that you stole our idea because we have you on Whatsapp chats… We are the ones who started this thing and we were chatting to you, and gave you our idea and you stole it,” Moeletsi said.

Moeletsi further accused Ndlovu of being in a Whatsapp group with the Amapiano Awards team where the awards were allegedly discussed.

The DJ confirmed he was part of a Whatsapp group but claimed that he was doing research on an amapiano award show and that Omar approached him regarding a workshop and not the awards.

Chaos ensued when Ndlovu and Moeletsi engaged in an argument over whether proof of concept was submitted to the groups’ respective legal representatives, and whether the awards were discussed in the Whatsapp group. The two proceeded to interrupt each other and talk over each other at the Zoom session.

The briefing ended with Ndlovu saying that SA Amapiano Awards wanted proof the concept was stolen and said the matter will be dealt with in the courts.