Musician Kelly Khumalo is fuming after walking away empty-handed at the 29th South African Music Awards (Samas) which were staged at the SunBet Arena in Pretoria on Saturday, 18 November.
The Empini hitmaker was nominated in the Best Afropop Album and Female Artist of the Year categories – which were won by Sjava and gospel singer Ntokozo Mbambo, respectively.While Best Afropop Album formed part of the awards that were not televised on Friday, South Africans were afforded the opportunity to watch the Female Artist of the Year award being scooped during the main event on Saturday – this included Kelly Khumalo, who seemingly was not in attendance on the night but watched from home.
In a number of posts on social media platform X, the Esiphambanweni singer threw a tantrum (and expletives) when she did not win the hotly contested Female Artist of the Year award, alluding to the Samas votes being rigged.
“You guys know the truth. Numbers never lie. Call me Emaweni [title of her latest album],” Kelly Khumalo wrote.She continued: “Arranged winnings FUSEG!… I’m not scared of all of you FUSEG! FUSEG NONKE.”
When one netizen pointed out that it was the judges who decided the winner, Kelly replied, “tell them I’m not scared of them.”
Kelly went on to use the IsiZulu expletive, ms*nu – made popular on social media by DJ Euphonik many years ago.
The mother-of-three also attacked Ntokozo Mbambo for winning against her with her gospel album, Lavish Worship.
“She knows she doesn’t deserve it. Numbers don’t lie… Even Ntokozo knows that numbers don’t lie! We are not scared of her. Fuseg Samas,” she wrote.