The country’s premier music awards, the South African Music Awards (Samas), could coming to Durban for the next three years, if the city is persuaded to pick up the R66 million tab.
The figure raised the eyebrows of councillors in the city’s economic development and planning committee during a meeting yesterday.
Sama officials Refiloe Ramogase and Mika Chauke tried to sell the idea to the committee, but while some seemed to buy into the idea, DA councillors said they were “scared” of the figure cited in the presentation.
The annual events honour and “recognise accomplishment in the South African recording industry”.
The Samas have been held at Sun City in North West for the past 14 years and are sponsored by Amstel, Kia and the SABC.
The Samas duo said the reason behind the move was that the awards had “outgrown” North West.
The committee decided not to discuss the presentation in detail until a report with financial breakdowns and “specifics” had been tabled before it.
It was unclear whether the city would be solely responsible for paying the R66m.
Ramogase and Chauke said “investment consideration” would require “R20m per year with 10% annual escalation over a three-year sponsorship window”.
The total investment would be R20m in year one, R22m the next year and R24.2m in the final year (these figures excluded VAT).
According to the presentation, this year’s Samas “achieved an overall value, through media coverage, of R134m from March 6 to May 14”.
Committee chairwoman and deputy mayor Nomvuzo Shabalala said she was “excited” at the prospect of the city hosting the awards but she needed a report from city officials.
She said: “They are now considering us. Samas have never been here before.
“Remember, there are events that have outgrown us – Top Gear is one of those. Also the Metro FM awards – our contract with them is finished, so we are looking at proposals and the Samas can be one of those.”
DA councillors in the committee were apprehensive about the price tag and scarcity of details.
“We are scared about the size of the money. R66m in three years? There are problems,” said DA coucillor Duncan du Bois
But Shabalala tried to allay fears, saying: “They have clarified they are not only looking at us, so we shouldn’t be worried about that until we’ve seen the report.”
The DA’s Nicole Graham said “a trend” was emerging – “people want to bring their events here”. Although that was good, the city needed to ensure that organisers were not bringing events to Durban “because they think we will bankroll them”.
“That is something I’m increasingly concerned about. The idea that we could be the headline sponsor is a bit problematic.
“We would be happy to support it if it’s reasonable, but looking at this kind of money, I don’t think it is reasonable,” she said.
Shabalala said the city would rely on its officials to work on something that would not “compromise us”.
“If it comes to eThekwini, it doesn’t benefit us only as the city, it benefits the entire province. We need to know what the province’s take on this is,” she said.
The Samas officials said the benefits included key tourism initiatives that stimulated via “activations”. A series of key arts and culture venues in the province would be used for a series of Sama programmes.
One initiative was a Sama “statuette redesign competition”, and the winning design would be presented to category winners for the next three years, starting with the next awards ceremony.
There would also be the nominees “press announcement” and a black-tie “mayor/premier’s ball to announce lifetime achievement and international recognition awards” at the city hall.
A music conference and the broadcast of the awards ceremony at the International Convention Centre on April 26 next year would also be part of the programme.
Initiatives would culminate with a Freedom Day concert in conjunction with the city and the province on April 27.
All these would “guarantee media exposure” for eThekwini and KwaZulu-Natal.
The Mercury