South African Music Awards (SAMAs) are awarded in a series of categories, each of which isolate a specific contribution to music. The standard awards list nominees in each category from which a winner is selected. SAMA categories have been added and removed over time.
There are special awards which are awarded without nominations, typically for achievements of longer than the past year, which the standard awards apply to:
The Top 5 categories are standard awards for musical works which do not restrict nominees by genre, but may do so by some other criteria: