Gospel Artist Pulane Maphari On Being Stripped Of Her SAMA

It’s fantastic to win. But winning and then being stripped of one’s award is the ultimate embarrassment for many people. That is the situation that gospel singer Pulane Maphari is currently in.

She was recently stripped of her SOUTH African Music Award (SAMA), ostensibly to protect the award’s integrity.

According to the Recording Industries South Africa (RiSA), she broke SAMA rules by repackaging an old album as a new one, which violated the rules for awarding musicians plaques.

The songstress had won the SAMA for Best Contemporary Faith Album, but it was taken away from her less than a month later. In that case, she can no longer claim to be a SAMA winner in that category.

On the decision to withdraw her award, she noted that she wished the awarding body had done its due diligence. She said she had no clue she had done something wrong. She was, therefore, surprised that she was stripped of the award.

What’s more, she didn’t realize she’d been stripped of her award until she read about it in an article. She had received no information from the SAMA prior to that point.