Cape Town – Latoya Nontokozo Buthelezi, better known as Toya Delazy, has slammed the South African Hip-Hop Awards (SAHHA), claiming the organisation is “homophobic”.
The London-based musician took to social media on Thursday, to blast the list of the 2021 nominees.
Following a tweep’s criticism of the SAHHA’s “fake female representation”, Toya tweeted that the festival organiser Rashid Kay was “homophobic” to her back in 2013.
She alleged that Kay mocked her in “public on Twitter”.
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“SAHHA was already homophobic towards me back in 2013, remember Rashid kay asking me to choose what I am anyway a boy or a girl mocking me publicly on Twitter. Bk then there was no protection, comments like that took bread away & respect so I don’t expect the same folks to see me,” Toya tweeted.
SAHHA was already homophobic towards me back in 2013, remember Rashid kay asking me to choose what I am anyway a boy or a girl mocking me publicly on twitter. Bk then there was no protection, comments like that took bread away & respect so I don’t expect the same folks to see me
— AFRORAVE (@ToyaDelazy) November 4, 2021
Responding to Toya’s claims, Rashid said that when the SAHHA started in 2012, very few women submitted their music for consideration. This led to a debate with controversial poet Ntsiki Mazwai on Twitter, according to TimesLIVE
“Here’s what happened. When the SAHHAs started in 2012, there were very few females who submitted. We once had only two females nominated. That’s when Ntsiki Mazwai challenged us for excluding women. We even had a live debate on Metro FM,” the report quoted Rashid as saying.
He said that as he and Ntsiki continued to debate on Twitter, Toya joined in and “she ‘homophobe’ card for not including the community. I explained that none of the submissions state whether one is straight or gay. She wanted to score cheap points and the whole thing was quoted out of context”.
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Picture: Twitter/@ToyaDelazy
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Compiled by Sinothando Siyolo
