The Department of Sport and Recreation has denied paying R17 million for US singer Beyonce Knowles to perform at the sports awards later this year.

“No contract of R17m has been signed,” the department’s director general Alec Moemi said on Tuesday. “This is a fabrication.”

Moemi said the department issued a tender every year asking companies to provide proposals on what they intended to feature at the awards if given the chance.

For more details go to http://www.iol.co.za