Winners of the 2019 Salax Awards edition have finally been given their money- after over six months. Ahmed Pacifique, the CEO of Ahupa which currently organizes the awards, confirmed this development on Thursday afternoon. The payments were successfully sealed a month after Star Times, the sponsor of the event, announced that it would consider taking organisers to court, expressing frustrations on why the payment process has taken too long for them to hand over the money to award-winning artistes yet the digital services firm had ‘done its part’. Artistes have been in a dilemma for over six months with no idea whether they would get the money they won. But, after handing over the money, Ahmed told The New Times that there were challenges that were inevitable, but that there was no intention of delaying the artistes’ money. He said, “Remember the awards resumed in 2019 after three years of pause. We faced challenges and that has passed. But now everything has been sorted out and we have given them their money as we promised,” Ahmed said artistes got the net amount of money as promised without any deductions. He promised that his company will do their best in the next editions to ensure that the challenges faced can be avoided. Yvan Buravan, one of the award winners, confirmed to The New Times that he got the money but insisted that the case filed in court suing Ahupa over delay of payment wont be withdrawn. The 2018 RFI Prix Decouverte laureate revealed his music label, New Level, and other artistes have sued the awards organising company. “The case is already in court and paying us won’t mean that we will withdraw it,” he said, adding, “I find it impossible for me to participate in Salax Awards anymore as long as Ahupa is behind the awards”
