adminAuxilia Katongomara Entertainment Reporter
Bulawayo artistes have threatened to boycott the National Arts Merit Awards set for Saturday claiming they were still in the dark on who will be performing at the prestigious awards hosted by the city for the second time.The artiste expressed concern over the failure by the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe and Mighty Movies to announce the performing artistes.
Khulekani Bhethule popularly known as Khuxxman raised the issue in the Bulawayo Musicians Association page.
“How are you musicians . . . it’s Nama week, but we still dont know who has been selected to perform. What exactly is the National Arts Council/Mighty Movies trying to do? I suspect they want to bring in musicians from outside Bulawayo as entertainers,” he wrote.
Derrick Majaivana immediately responded by writing: “As usual nothing new guys.”
Lwazi Skuza aka Mcheznana did not mince his words and called on artistes to boycott the event.
“Let’s just boycott the event,” he said.
Another artiste, Mzoe Seven quizzed the selection criteria the National Arts Council uses to select performing artistes at such events.
“Who chose them if they are there? Did they check with the association? It’s high time we get respect for our work and loyalty,” he said.
Khuxxman later retracted his statement after he learnt that Jah Prayzah, Intombi Zomqangala, hip-hop dance crew Antivirus and music legend Dorothy Masuka were some of the artistes expected to perform at the awards ceremony.
“I later heard of the performing artistes and made them known to the artistes as well, but the selection criteria is always kept a secret, but it’s okay.
The problem is that we have more active artistes such as House Rebels who need such platforms for exposure, but I don’t have a problem with the selected artistes,” he said.
The Vumelani Sangoma singer is among the artistes who performed at last year’s Nama together with Willis Wattafi, Umkhathi Theatre Arts, Siyaya Arts, Iyasa, Simunye Simunye, Anti-virus Dance Crew, Break Equation, Umdumo Wesizwe, Family Voices and Outfit Band as artistes from Bulawayo.
Despite the large number of artistes who performed at the event, there were some who including Black Umfolosi who felt left out.
Black Umfolosi is one of Bulawayo’s longest surviving groups and imbube exponents who felt left out.
Online Reporter