Another white final in Idols

Music experts ask: Why has 'Idols' not produced an African winner?

Some of the biggest names in the local music business have spoken out about why, after seven seasons, TV reality show Idols is yet to produce an African winner.

With the competition's seventh series ending in tonight's finale between Dave van Vuuren, 21, and Mark Haze, 28, the comments of former judge Mara Louw, that the competition's voters were racist, have again surfaced.

Last November, Louw said the show would have to move to the SABC if producers hoped to find a black winner. She was quoted as saying, after Elvis Blue clinched last season's crown over Lloyd Cele: "Lloyd should have won. Finish and klaar.

"Black people don't have access to DStv, so a large part of South Africa is excluded. White people vote for white people and black people get the short end of the stick."

Despite an outcry on Twitter in which viewers voiced their fury after Crushanda Forbes, the last contestant of colour, was voted off last week, many local stars yesterday defended the competition.

999 Music record label owner and kwaito singer Arthur Mafokate, who took Afro soul-singing superstar Lira to audition - unsuccessfully - for Idols' inaugural season in 2002, said the competition was not racist.

"I don't think it's a race issue. I think it's about criteria. The competition is linked to record labels, and those labels know what they want," he said.

Idols, he said, is "a good product that is brilliantly packaged".

Rapper and guest judge HHP, whose real name is Jabulani Tsambo, said it was less an issue of "come on black people, let's vote", but of hopefuls striving to endear themselves to the entire TV-watching population instead.

"One of the biggest reasons why black people watch Idols is because they hope one day someone will go all the way.

"Whoever it is eventually, and I think it's not far from now, will need to be relevant to the entire country - without selling out to win over another race."

He used his own example, where he clinched the Strictly Come Dancing title in 2007, saying voters had voted for him because he worked hard for it.

Meisie Meisie singer Kurt Darren said neither of this year's two finalists appealed to him. He agreed with Louw that the competition had to become available to a wider audience.

Season 1 winner Heinz Winckler said: "The main reason probably has a lot to do with the fact that out of a population of almost 50million people, only about 1.4million households and businesses own DStv decoders. And out of that number I would imagine most are white people."

M-Net spokesman Ingrid Engelbrecht said: "As voting is done anonymously, we don't have any information about the identity or background of the voters.

"We believe that the votes are cast based on the contestants' performances and not on race, gender or stereotyping."

PREVIOUS WINNERS

• Heinz Winckler (2002)
• Anke Pietrangeli (2003)
• Karin Kortje (2005)
• Jody Williams (2007)
• Jason Hartman and Sasha-Lee Davids (2009)
• Elvis Blue (2010)