The Royalty Soapie Awards, the new upstart South African awards ceremony looking to bestow statuettes on South Africa's TV soap stars and those working behind the scenes cranking out these weekday sudsers, tells TV with Thinus that "it's a pity that e.tv did not allow their soap productions to enter".
It comes after e.tv decided to pull both its local South African soaps Rhythm City and Scandal! from The Royalty Soap Awards, instantly nullifying the perceived credibility within the South African TV industry of the new awards ceremony organised by Generations actress Winnie Modise.
ALSO READ: e.tv on pulling its soaps from the Royalty Soapie Awards: "To be blunt: They think they can just put up an event and use our brands'.
With 20 categories, and viewers' votes deciding "Most Popular Soapie of the Year", it means a hollow victory for the winner since viewers who might have wanted to vote for Rhythm City or Scandal! won't be able to do so.
With major questions around who judged the various categories and who the judges are since the organisers have refused to release any names, the Royalty Soapie Awards says the judges will only be revealed at the winners' announcement ceremony set for 2 November in Durban.
"It's a pity that e.tv did not allow their soap productions to enter. However we do respect their decision, as all roleplayers have the prerogative to participate or not," Sindile Zulu, Royalty Soapie Awards project director tells TV with Thinus.
Asked for a list of the judges, Sindile Zulu says "the names of the judges will only be revealed at the winners' announcement ceremony. This is done to ensure that there is no interference from any quarter and that the integrity of the entire process is protected. This applies to many similar awards locally and abroad."
"The judges are from a broad spectrum of people in the arts. They are experts in the TV production industry, photographers, actors, TV and radio personalities and entertainment media."
Asked how the Royalty Soapie Awards can see itself as representative of South Africa's TV soap industry if not all soaps on South African television are taking part, Sindile Zulu says "it has always been the intention of the Royalty Soapie Awards to be inclusive of the industry as a whole".
"Industry support for these awards has been extremely positive with all broadcasters bar one submitting entries. Over 100 entries have been received from 10 of South Africa's 12 soap productions. This represents over 80% of the industry."
"e.tv's decision is unfortunate, however we aim to build the confidence of the broadcaster so that all South African soaps will participate moving forward," says Sindile Zulu.
According to Sindile Zulu the Royalty Soapie Awards established a representative steering committee made up of specialists from TV broadcasting stations and non-conflicting production houses, "those who had no soapies to enter". "A representative executive producer from e.tv was a part of the original team".
Sindile Zulu says the Royalty Soapie Awards was "notified of e.tv's decision not to participate through the Rhythm City and Scandal! production teams. They were in the final process of submitting their entries when they were informed of the decision not to participate."
"We managed to secure a meeting with Monde Twala, e.tv's group head of channels, a week or two later to understand their position."
"He indicated that it is the broadcaster's intention to protect the brands that they have built and that he felt that e.tv had not received sufficient information to warrant participation in these awards. He indicated that their non-participation was based mostly on their lack of confidence in the entry and adjudication processes of award ceremonies in general, which he was not convinced were fair," says Sindile Zulu.
"As a new awards ceremony our priority is to grow," says Sindile Zulu. "We value the input of the industry into making the Royalty Soapie Awards trusted, supported and loved by all.Our intention is to convene a steering committee each year to better our criteria and to ensure that we are fully representative."
"We will continue to engage e.tv to hear the broadcaster's concerns and hopefully secure its future participation."
