Rigging claims hit South African 'Pop Idol'

The ejection of two talented singers this week from the South African version of ITV's Pop Idol has raised suspicions that the vote has deliberately been skewed.

Yesterday, an official at Vodacom, the mobile phone company that makes millions of rands out of calls to its Idols numbers, was quoted as saying there were "a number of syndicates voting". He said: "Votes running into hundreds are being cast for a couple of the contestants from the same telephone numbers every day, almost without break. In money terms, that comes to a phone bill of several thousand rand a week."

The suggestion is that contestants have armies of family and friends who spend their time on the phone voting over and over again. While this is within the show's rules, it seems against its spirit of fairness. The rigging story follows a feeling of outrage when Ayanda Nhlangothi was voted off on Monday night. She is 19, black and an extraordinary talent from a struggling single-parent family Also out of the last six went Ezra Lingeveldt, who was almost as good.

In race-obsessed South Africa, there have also been allegations of a pro-black bias among the judges, and concerns expressed that wealthy whites, who can afford to be serial voters, will favour victory by a white. Certainly, whites secured victory for one of the more revolting of Big Brothercontestants, a young Afrikaner called Ferdinand. Time will tell whether there is victory for either of Idols' two remaining white finalists, who hope to follow in the footsteps of Will Young in Britain and find fame as a manufactured pop star.

Only Ayanda seems unruffled by such folly. She said: "I can't really say it's a race thing, it's merely a matter of support. I had a lot of support and that was enough for me. Everybody doesn't have to like me. I don't have to be the winner. This is just the beginning for me."