Cape Town – The Royalty Soapie Awards – a new awards ceremony which would have celebrated South African’s local soap opera genre – has been postponed to an indefinite date in 2014, less than a month before it was set to take place on 2 November in Durban.

The postponement raises further questions around the organising of the now controversial event.

The Royalty Soapie Awards apparently couldn’t sign a South African broadcaster to broadcast the event of 2 November on time, as it is trying to hammer out a deal with SABC1.

Questions have been swirling around the Royalty Soapie Awards, organised by Generations’ actress Winnie Modise, since earlier this year when it splashily announced a September announcement of nominees which didn’t materialise.

Meanwhile many in the local TV industry are clueless about the judges since the awards show refuses to release any names.

Lala Tuku, Modise’s partner to start the awards ceremony, is also no longer involved and backed out.

There have been other delays as well and big concerns from the South African TV industry which saw e.tv pull its local soaps such as Rhytm City and Scandal!. Pay-TV broadcaster M-Net also snubbed the awards by keeping Inkaba and Zabalaza out of categories.

In the statement issued at midnight on Saturday, the Royalty Soapie Awards, now claiming the beginning of 2014 is better because the calendar is less crowded and that it is jettisoning its 2 November date in Durban for a new, unannounced date in the 2014, says “the inaugural awards ceremony focusing on television soap opera will now take place in the first quarter of 2014”.

“The first quarter of the year is an ideal time and fairly uncluttered from an entertainment point of view and is a fantastic time to visit Durban as it falls outside of the peak holiday season,” said Sindile Xulu, Royalty Soapie Awards project director.

Unorganised?

The statement doesn’t explain why the organisers – wanting to mount a professional industry event – didn’t know of, were not aware of, or didn’t have or make use of professionals to calendarise and inform the organisers of this back in June when the Royalty Soapie Awards and the dates were announced.

The Royalty Soapie Awards now plan to announce the finalists in the acting categories on 23 October. Voting for the non-inclusive list of soaps for the “Most Popular Soapie” award has been announced as now starting on 2 November.

“We want to be a part of it, but we need to take care of what’s the intention around a particular awards ceremony,” Monde Twala, e.tv’s group head of channels told Channel24. “What’s the benefit for not only the broadcaster but what’s the benefit for the actors, what’s the benefit for producers, directors?”

“There’s a lot of clutter at the moment in terms of different people coming up with all sorts of award events.”

“We’re running a business here and we’re running a long term business. I don’t know who is included in the Royalty Soapie Awards. Who are the judges? They say they’ve got judges. They’re not giving us the facts. We don’t know what the judging process is.”

“We’re not just going to blindly go into awards and mess up our brands,” said Twala.

Source: News24.com – Thinus Ferreira