Malay choir chaos: Shock walk-out, ‘skote’ at local singing competition
|Published
SHOW’S OVER FOLKS: The upset Ottomans Singing choir staged a walk-out
After a two-year hiatus, the Cape Malay Choir competition ended in chaos on Saturday night when one team staged a walk-out due to alleged irregularities, while the entire competition was stopped after an alleged gunshot went off outside the venue.
Panicked mense outside ran into the Good Hope Christian Centre in Ottery while those inside rushed out to see what happened, according to eyewitnesses.
Adnaan Morris, spokesperson for the Cape Malay Choir Board, says the events were halted and patrons sent home due to safety concerns despite one team still to perform.
The CMBC’s Super Ten (previously known as the Top 8), where the season’s winner is decided, will now take place at a later stage, Morris said,
Regarding the walk-out of the Ottomans Singing choir, upset mense took to social media to bash the CMCB, calling it “incompetent and corrupt”.
But according to Morris, who did not name the choir in question, “one of the choirs was in transgression of the competition rules”.
“When the outcome was going to be delivered that they were disqualified, they were obviously unhappy with the situation and there was a lot of emotion which is understandable because people invest a lot of time and money into these competitions,” he explains.
“When the disgruntled members were assembled in the parking lot, an incident took place on the field, either a firecracker or gunshot went off and it obviously affected our people outside.
“At the same time the people started rushing into the venue for safety, some people wanted to see what was going on.
“The appointed safety officer at the event made a decision to stop the event and inform Saps to come on site and ensure the people have a safe passage to exit.
“We also cannot confirm that the shot or incident is related to the competition.
“There is a strong speculation it is from the area but at this point we are waiting on Saps.”
“We had 10 teams and the competition was not finished yet, we had one team that still had to go on stage.”
Morris adds that the decision to disqualify the choir was a joint decision by the board and other choirs.
“The organisation did not even get the chance to announce the disqualification [on stage] because of the incident on the field, we were advised to stop the competition.
“It is very sad because we wanted to give the people a nice show and give the teams an opportunity to strut their stuff.”
According to Daily Voice columnist Mujahid George, who was at the competition, the CMCB is not at fault.
He says the problem arose when singer Nur Abrahams performed for the Ottomans on Saturday night, which is against competition rules.
“Nur Abrahams was supposed to perform two weeks ago but he did not pitch at that time,” George explains.
“He sang at this competition [on Saturday night)]and the other teams felt that it was unfair. In all honesty, it has nothing to do with the CMCB.”
“The Ottoman Singing club assumed that they were disqualified [when they walked out] but there were no announcements made on that [yet].”
When Daily Voice reached out to the Ottomans, a PR officer refused to comment saying it was a “sensitive matter”, and when the Voice contacted Nur, his wife referred the paper to the Ottomans.