At one point or another, MultiChoice and M-Net's Afrikaans channels division kykNET are going to have to answer the questions posed to it after they as television, sponsor and broadcaster directly interfered in a national performing arts award prize giving and demanded the removal of a nominee.
MultiChoice and kykNET handled it extremely badly and then didn't want to answer specific questions about the actions it took.
The heavy-handed way in which MultiChoice and kykNET said that it won't be associated with someone they don't want to be associated with anymore, and then botched the resulting fallout and controversy, will cast a pall going forward over all award shows where MultiChoice and kykNET are either acting as sponsors, or are involved with to whatever degree as name sponsors or organisers.
When MultiChoice decided to give the organisers of the 2019 kykNET Ghoema Music Awards an ultimatum to remove the singer Steve Hofmeyr as a nominee from one of the categories of the awards show because it deems the race-baiting Afrikaans singer now persona non-grata and a racist, it also made the mistake of overstepped the line as sponsor to become judge, awards show jury member and artist executioner.
In a functioning democracy with freedom of association, it's completely fine and correct for MultiChoice or any company or sponsor to say that they don't want to be involved with something or someone and to either not become involved or to withdraw.
Where MultiChoice and kykNET however erred were in their direct interference of nominees.
The interference meant that MultiChoice and kykNET - instead of the Ghoema Music Trust - became directly involved in who the nominees are - or more specifically who will not be - and effectively usurped a "choosing" or censorship right.
Sponsors of competitions don't choose the winners and losers - the experts, the judges or the public do.
With many unanswered questions from MultiChoice and kykNET it will now cloud the credibility of all awards they're involved with going forward.
MultiChoice and kykNET need to step up and answer and explain in detail and on the record to what degree and how they will - or won't - interfere in arts and art awards shows in future.
Nobody in South Africa's TV industry currently knows how MultiChoice and its brands like kykNET now see their role when they partner with awards shows.
Are they merely name sponsors or do they demand overall veto power over any and all categories and nominees before and after they're announced?
From the DStv Mzansi Viewers' Choice Awards, to the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards, what guarantee do anybody in the industry and the public have that the sponsor isn't deciding who the winner or winners will be - or won't?
If a "Steve Hofmeyr" or anyone for whatever reason is deemed "unapproved" and makes an appearance, guest-appearance or has music licensed and used in any of the film nominee categories for the upcoming 2019 kykNET Silwerskermfilmfees, will that artistic work be thrown out, discarded, banned or be ineligible because the sponsor doesn't like the contribution?
And where exactly does MultiChoice now stand for instance with artistic work that is by or contains Steve Hofmeyr if it didn't want a new music video that included the artist to be part of an awards show? Are any of his music videos allowed to air on any DStv channels?
If Viacom International Media Networks Africa (VIMN Africa) for instance wants to run a Comedy Central Roast of ... marathon on Comedy Central (DStv 122) in future, would the Comedy Central Roast of Steve Hofmeyr episode be allowed as part of the set?
Clarity on these and multiple other questions and issues are sorely needed by South Africa's TV and its creative arts industry.
Instead of demanding the removal of an already-announced nominee, MultiChoice, if it felt it really had to act after nominees were already chosen and announced, should have asked the Ghoema board to rather waylay the entire category to rechoose new nominees from scratch, or to come to a new decision about the awarding of a winner for it later.
Although not desirable but the lesser of evils, in March, the National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) and Saftas organisers withdrew the whole category for Best Documentary Short from 2019's 13th South African Film and Television Awards instead of just the one nominee, when a problem arose before the award show happened but after the nominees had already been announced.
The judges reconvened and only awarded a winner this week for Best Documentary Short after the category was rejudged.
You can understand why some artists said that they would boycott the 2019 kykNET Ghoema Music Awards after the interference.
You can understand how unfair it was for the singers and performers who were nominated and who did nothing wrong, to suddenly get thrown out and discarded because someone else happened to appear with them in a song and a music video.
It was also presumably very difficult if not impossible for some artists to protest about something being done to them that was wrong - a sponsor deciding that a nomination must be axed - without themselves coming across as supporting or endorsing a racist which is part of another issue entirely.
Sponsors and broadcasters are not art directors. They're not the appointed judges and art critics to evaluate the artistic merit of nominees in performance art competitions. They don't get to decide who should win or not.
Furthermore, the way and the broad lack of communication from MultiChoice and kykNET during the furore and kykNET's lack of answers to pertinent questions from the media allowed other elements to hijack the narrative and mar the 2019 Ghoemas.
When future historians, researchers, students and the public use internet search engines and scour public records of this time about award show credibility in South Africa on television during the second decade of the 21st century, what will they find in statements and answers and explanations from broadcasters at the time?
MultiChoice and kykNET should have immediately switched to doing crisis communication, should have responded and have talked to the media much more and quicker, and should have had answers ready to not just what they were doing at the time, but what their stance is going forward.
Now not just the TV industry, but also the music industry (and the Afrikaans music industry in particular), the broader public, kykNET viewers and supporters, and those entering award shows, are all left wondering where exactly the dividing lines are.
ALSO READ: TV CRITIC's NOTEBOOK. I said no to Steve Hofmeyr years ago - then South African Afrikaans television finally caught up and rightly said no but in one of the worst ways possible.
ALSO READ: Ongoing silence from kykNET as DStv's Afrikaans channel remains quiet over questions around its handling of the kykNET Ghoema Music Awards 2019 controversy.
ALSO READ: MultiChoice orders the kykNET Ghoema Music Awards to remove Steve Hofmeyr as nominee, as kykNET dumps it as a live broadcast, after which singers now say they will boycott tonight's awards show.
