The renowned Best Newcomer Actress in a Film award at the ninth annual Simon Mabhunu Sabela Awards drew criticism. The ceremony took place in July.
Following the awarding of the prize to debut actress Thulisile Dlamini from the film “Help,” objections were received, according to a statement from the KwaZulu Natal Film Commission.
Despite the fact that Dlamini’s name was not on the real nomination board, she was nevertheless given the prize.
After analyzing the complaints for many months, the commission has responded, stating that Dlamini continues to be the category winner and that the deletion of her name was the result of a “human mistake.”
As stated in the statement, “it was noted that the nominee, Thulisile Dlamini, was indeed the correct winner that was scored in all three stages with comments from the judges declaring her the outright winner of the category. This was confirmed by the external independent Auditor after reviewing the judging reports provided by the Overall Judges.
It went on to say that the name was missed when data was transferred from the auditors’ sheet to other communication systems.
We would like to clarify that Thulisile Dlamini is the category winner according to both the signed reports from the Overall Judges and the External Auditor.
The KZN Film Commission’s interim CEO, Victor Senna, apologized for the “human mistake” and gave the film industry his word that the awards-judging system’s integrity was unaffected.
“The human mistake was determined to be the result of independent input not related to the judging or auditing procedure. Although the error is disappointing, it demonstrates that the winners’ list is approved, verified, and sealed by an auditor since even though there was a mistake, the award nonetheless got to the right recipient.
Senna said that “corrective steps are being put in place to make sure the mistake is never repeated.”
The Simon Mabhunu Sabela KZN Film and Television Awards 2021 candidates and winners deserve all of our congratulations, he added.