By Arts Correspondent
LONDON – Nominations for the fifth edition of the Zimbabwe Achievers Awards (ZAA) will close on Sunday 15 February with organisers saying there has been a huge increase in the number of people who have taken part in the process.
Following the close of nominations on Sunday, the ZAA’s panel of experts will comb through the submitted candidates to verify their credibility and claims of achievement before whittling the names down to a shortlist that will be announced on 5 March.
“As has been the experience from year to year, we keep getting greater numbers of nominees as more people are taking up the opportunity to participate in the making of the awards,” ZAA Executive Director, Brian Nyabunze said.
“We’ll reveal the exact number of nominations we’ve received when we announce the shortlist. Voting on the shortlisted candidates will also commence soon after the announcement of the finalists on the 5th of March and close at the end of April,” he added.
This year’s awards will be held on Saturday 9 May 2015 at the same venue as last year’s event – the five star Royal Garden Hotel in Kensington, London.
Award nominations opened in the first week of January across all 18 categories. An exciting new addition to the honours list this year is the Author of the Year award, which combines the previous Academic award with recognition for literary talent. As such, writers of fiction and non-fiction will for the first time be in the running for honours.
The ticket discount has been extended to the 5th of March in response to popular appeals by the public, with tickets going for £69.95 instead of the standard price of £89.95. Sales will close at midnight on the 3rd of May.
“We have been inundated with positive feedback about the special offer on tickets and have decided to extend the discount to allow more people the opportunity to take up this offer,” Nyabunze explained.
Organisers are continuing with the tried and tested world class ticketing system that was introduced last year and allows prospective guests to choose their seats upon purchasing their tickets. All tickets are being sold exclusively on zimachievers.com.
The ZAA annual gala dinner has become the society red carpet event of the year and the pinnacle of recognition for the achievements of people of Zimbabwean heritage in the UK.
