Amapiano Awards takes legal action against DJ Qness for 'stealing' idea

The South African Amapiano Awards (SAAPA) have got a lot of attention on social media recently with many anticipating the award show, but it seems that there is drama behind the scenes as a different organisation has claimed the founder, DJ Qness,  stole the concept for the show.

The legal representatives of the Amapiano Awards — not to be confused with the South African Amapiano Awards — have sent a cease and desist letter to DJ Qness to not go ahead with the much-anticipated award ceremony as they allege that he stole the concept from their client.

Speaking to TshisaLIVE on Tuesday, Kevin Smith from Gani Mayet Attorneys said that his client had registered the concept in 2019 as the Amapiano Award and claims that after his client had an interaction with DJ Qness, the DJ started the South African Music Awards.

“The Amapiano awards, being our client, [we have learnt that] a non-profit company was registered in 2019, and the following year in 2020 a foundation was instituted as well and registered,” he said.

The legal representative went on to allege that DJ Qness had joined his client's team to assist with public relations and came on board as a the director of the foundation in May this year.  

“DJ Qness abandoned the Amapiano Awards but that's when he started the South African Amapiano Awards with the same concept plan that he was made aware of while he was part of the planning committee and that is why we're taking legal action. Not only was he privy to the plan and the implementation strategy but also the foundation itself. He circumvented the Amapiano awards to start his own, after being made aware of it.”

In response to these claims DJ Qness told TshisaLIVE that he first found out about this matter on social media and feels that the claims and allegations are baseless.

“The Indian lady making these claims, does she own Amapiano? First, that's cultural appropriation, trying to profit from young black people and using their talent for their personal enrichment. That's what I'm seeing from where I'm standing,” he said.

“We requested them to provide substantiation and proof of their claims because their claims are defamatory to our organisation and to our cause. It's been a week, they still have not sent that proof, they only sent us a cease and desist letter and a registration document for their company.” he added.

The DJ went on to say that despite the claims made by the legal representative and award show, he was still looking to go forward with the South African Amapiano Awards in October this year.

“We have never met [the people making the claims]. The Indian lady heard from a mutual friend that I was busy collecting research about doing an award show and heard about the work that I have done in the industry, and when I first spoke to her she was talking about doing a workshop and exposition ... we never spoke about ideas or planned an award show, we never did logistical planning, we never even met. We spoke on WhatsApp about her workshop,” the DJ maintains.