Vodacom has apologised to the people who entered its Single Ladies competition, which the cell phone company has had to shut it down earlier than intended.

The popular ad campaign that spawned the competition had a conflict over its licence to use the video by the singer.

The competition drew hundreds of people doing their best Beyonce impersonations. But the contest, which was meant to close at the end of the month, had to be cut short.

Vodacom?s Nicolene Visser says there was a licensing issue.

She says they had cleared the necessary rights to use the song for the television campaign but a problem arose when people started uploading videos.

Vodacom announced the winners of the competition on Wednesday.