Zima fails to give artists trophies

By Vasco Chaya

The Zimbabwe Music Awards (Zima) is still struggling to honour 2014-2015 winners with their trophies, four months after the event.

The seventh Zima edition was held at Harare International Conference Centre (HICC) in February and the event was beamed live on State TV.

Winners were supposed to walk away with a trophy but they were promised to receive their gongs soon after the event. Yet up to now, they are still waiting.

Zima publicist Farai Chapoterera said: “The challenge which we had was that some of the trophies were not properly engraved, so we actually had to return the entire batch for re-do and we are also still waiting for the trophies.

“Some of the trophies were wrongly titled; all the same it was a learning curve for us.”

Chapoterera said they were expecting the trophies anytime soon.

“Some of the artistes like Buffalo Soul Jah were awarded trophies which were not engraved because it will be costly to send them outside the country, so they just collected uncorrected materials,” Chapoterera said.

Zima chairperson Joseph Nyadzayo who is also President Robert Mugabe’s photographer had conceded their failure to come up with a “well-organised event” saying what came out of their latest edition of annual awards was not what they were expecting.

In a previous interview with the Daily News, Nyadzayo said his organisation strives to come up with an event of international calibre but inadequate resources hampered the development of the annual awards.

“We did not achieve the standards we were aimed for. We have a template which I think if it is fully implemented, the Zima awards will be a brand Zimbabwe will be proud of,” said Nyadzayo.

“Zima is always falling short due to resources. I thank NetOne and other sponsors for supporting Zima this year.”

Zima has been attacked right, left and centre for failing to organise an event that fits international standards yet some of the officials such as Nyadzayo are well exposed to high profile events as they travel with the president.

“You might have all the skills, knowledge and exposure but the bottom line remains the same, the issue of resources,” he said.

Nyadzayo said despite hiccups, he is against the idea of rewarding cash to excelling artists like what Nama did on their fifteenth edition event.

“As Zima, we do not reward cash to our winners because we believe if the awards are done in a proper manner, they generate not less than five million viewers on television which is very good to the artiste,” he said.

Zima has also been criticised for failing to deliver its promises concerning a house meant for veteran artiste Dickson “Cde Chinx” Chingaira.

“As I said before, we are operating without enough resources. It is our wish to complete the house and hand it over to Chingaira but resources are limiting us from quickly doing so.

“I am happy that the house is 90 percent complete, it only needs tiles and plumbing. We are planning to throw a party at the site once the house is complete,” he said in a previous interview with the Daily News on Sunday.

Zima was also criticised for being too ambitious in honouring international artistes like Bob Marley while ignoring local legends such as Safirio “Mukadota” Madzikatire and James Chimombe among others.

“We did not jump the ship to give Bob Marley an award while ignoring ours. We started by honouring ours in the form of Zex Manatsa, Green Jangara and of late Cde Chinx.

“For Cde Chinx, we decided to take a slightly different approach as we have gone a step further — building a house for him not just a residential stand — considering that he was consistent in the music industry despite that his compositions or creations do not translate into cash or anything tangible.

“Actually he has never benefited anything from his music but just his fame,” he said.

Nyadzayo is still hopeful that next year’s edition will be better.

“Next year, we are hoping to organise an event that is of international standards provided we get enough support,” he said. Daily News