FAVOURITISM CLAIMS DURING NTJILO-NTJILO CHORAL MUSIC COMPETITION

MBABANE – Some choirs have come out to voice out their concerns about favouritism during the past weekend competitions.

The issues arise because some of the choirs claim that they were not told about choristers bringing with them their identity cards to be granted access to the arena. Even so, some claim that other choirs were allowed to continue with their rendition even though they had no ID cards as other choirs were not checked backstage. African Philharmonic Chorus (APC) Secretary Phakamani Dlamini says that their choir did not participate in the female and male voice ensembles as he believes they were targeted. “As choirs we are not used to carrying our IDs when we are performing, hence we did not inform our choristers. I believe that since we are a new choir we are being targeted as this message was never conveyed to us,” he said.

This publication sent a questionnaire to the Ntjilo-Ntjilo Director, Mathokoza Sibiya, and he said that the accusations were not true. The Ntjilo-Ntjilo Director responded by saying: “Eswatini choirs were supposed to join the Tiro Mpane Foundation National Choir Eeistedfod (TMF-NCE} through Mpumalanga for eliminations as the competition is doing elimination rounds in all the South African Provinces and extended to Botswana, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Eswatini.’’“In a meeting involving Ntjilo-Ntjilo and the Eswatini National Choral Music Association with representatives from all member choirs, it was agreed that Ntjilo-Ntjilo and the Association leadership should engage the TMF-NCE and request collaboration where the latter rides on the already existing Ntjilo-Ntjilo competition to pick the winners that will then proceed to the finals in December.

Recognition

“Ordinarily, Ntjilo-Ntjilo does not allow international conductors or soloists or ordinary choristers. However in recognition of the collaboration and the musical demands of the prescribed opera music, at another Ntjilo-Ntjilo and association meeting, it was agreed to allow as many international soloists per choir as their music demands. “To ensure that no choir exceeds their quota of international soloists, the only valid instrument to ensure that at the time was national identification. All choirs brought their proof of identity except the African Philharmonic Chorus and could not be allowed to participate in the gender-based choirs for that reason. The solo and gender-based categories were exclusive to Ntjilo-Ntjilo while the mixed choirs formed part of the collaboration and the two sets of rules from both entities had to be considered. Due to the openness in the TMF-NCE rules regarding chorister nationality, a compromise had to be reached hence the participation of the APC in the mixed choirs.’’

“Worth mentioning is that there are also more choirs that pulled out from the competition and those are, Tingculungculu, Sweet Sounds, Asihlabelele Choral Society, and Varsity Melodies. Asihlabelele Choral Society Conductor Maswazi Mkhatjwa, said that their reason for pulling out of the competition was because of similar claims.

Qualify

“We pulled out two weeks before the competition because we had a very low number of choristers. We had only 24 yet the minimum number was 30, and automatically we could not qualify,” he said.  The APC Secretary still maintains that the director has his own personal agenda against them as a new choir and that hinders their growth. “If they say that it was communicated to all choirs then why would we continue participating knowing very well we will be turned back? It does not make sense. Sibiya has his own choirs that we all know he favours and that he wants to win,” he said. This was disputed by Sibiya who cited his detailed response.

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