Fleur du Cap boss admits vote bungle
Host Charlene Truter announces the winner of the Best Interpretation in a musical at the 46th annual awards held on March 20 at the Artscape Theatre. On the screen are the nominees in the category, bottom left is Ilse Klink who was incorrectly given the award over James Borthwick, bottom right, after an "administrative error". Picture : IAN LANDSBERG Host Charlene Truter announces the winner of the Best Interpretation in a musical at the 46th annual awards held on March 20 at the Artscape Theatre. On the screen are the nominees in the category, bottom left is Ilse Klink who was incorrectly given the award over James Borthwick, bottom right, after an "administrative error". Picture : IAN LANDSBERG
Organisers of the annual Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards have apologised for giving two prestigious awards to the wrong nominees.
At an Artscape ceremony on March 20, the award for Best Performance in a One-Person Show went to James Cairns instead of Antoinette Kellermann, while the Best Performance in a Musical award went to Ilse Klink instead of James Borthwick.
Conrad Sidego, chairman of the awards panel, said the mistake had occurred in the capturing of judges’ votes.
“This was a genuine mistake, not malice, and this apology is done to preserve the integrity of the awards, which is why we chose to come forward and admit that a mistake had occurred,” said Sidego.
Speaking at a press conference at the Artscape, Sidego said an internal audit would be done to ensure that such a mistake could not happen again.
He said they had been made aware of the mistake when a number of the judges approached them on the night of the awards about Klink and Cairns having won.
After an internal investigation, it was discovered that an error had occurred in the transferring of data.
“I cannot go into too much detail as to how the error occurred, but it was after the judges’ announcement had been made,” said Sidego.
He said it had been difficult to tell the two nominees they had not actually won, but it was felt that it was the right thing to do.
He said although Cairns and Klink had been “stripped” of their awards, they would each retain the R15 000 prize they received.
“It is a loss on our side as we now had to give the award and the prize money again to the actual winners, but it is something that we had to do to preserve the integrity of the awards,” he said.
The Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards, which hosted its 46th annual awards ceremony this year, acknowledges excellence in theatre, arts and culture. - Cape Argus