Of Nama, ‘Munotidako’ and GOtv

Jonathan Mbiriyamveka TV Column
It has been long and readers of this column must have been wondering where yours truly was for the last two months. Well, my apologies folks, I was on a deserved vacation. Frankly speaking, it is always good to see how others do their things when you‘re not around. I learnt a lot from that.

In this very first instalment I will try and reflect on the drama, action and razzmatazz on the small screens.

Nama fiasco: Heads must roll. Firstly, I got a lot of feedback regarding the recently held 13th National Arts Merit Awards in Bulawayo.

That the awards were held in the City of Kings and Queens was commendable but what came out of the awards was a disaster.

This year’s winners walked away with gongs as well as cash prizes of US$500 (the same amount given to winners last year) prize per each category that should have put smiles on the faces of artistes, the likes of Jah Prayzah who was the biggest winner with four awards.

Oddly enough, there were other winners, a good number of them who were controversially awarded. I will not go into details since that subject was dealt with at length by other writers. The question of who wins what is always controversial such that even at the Grammys you wonder what could have been. I queried this year when Macklemore and Ryan Lewis won ahead of Compton’s finest Kendrick Lamar.

And now yours truly was surprised to note that there were two winners in the Literary Awards for Outstanding Fiction Book, Ignatius Mabasa and Charles Mungoshi. Quite honestly this was absurd. Mabasa and Mungoshi are two different writers and I shudder to think if the adjudicators read both books because if they did they would have come up with one winner.

Then we were embarrassed that Nama presenters and organisers were both ignorant of the fact that Dorothy Masuku is not Dorothy Masuka. Thanks to Auntie Dot for stating it as a matter of fact. But even though she made the announcement live on the “telly”, minutes later we had the likes of Albert Nyathi and Nicholas Moyo, the deputy director of the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe calling her Dorothy Masuka.

Sadder still, the awards ceremony which has been held for the past 13 years still resembles a school prize giving day and on that note I suggest heads must roll at the NACZ. How on earth did Oliver Mtukudzi deserve the Arts Personality. Does this mean that Nama judges don’t know anything about Mokoomba or the South African based artistes, Buffalo Souljah and Oskido? Maybe yes, maybe not? Yours truly suggests that heads must roll at NACZ.

There is no doubt that 2014 started off on a busy note musically that is. For some strange reason it appears some people don’t take themselves seriously. The song “Munotidako” by one Jacob Moyana lacks seriousness on the part of the artiste.

However, we know that not every serious song becomes a hit and perhaps this is why Moyana thrives on controversy. “Munotidako” is no doubt doing the rounds outside radio and that’s strange. If it’s a hit then it should be getting heavy rotation on every radio station but that’s not the case. The reason is that Moyana has gone over the top when it comes to lyrical content. What he sings is not what he means in almost every song.

And there is a lot of animation to the songs which again reached viral sensation on the social media.

Apparently, Moyana is not stopping and there have been reports that he is back with another song called “Pamha . . . something”. And it looks like Moyana has plenty of stuff up his sleeves I wonder what his next release would sound like. I just hope he won’t go the Andy Brown way when he sang “Ane muzvambarara wemota”.

Below is an email by a subscriber regarding the unavailability of GOtv signals and the response from MultiChoice Zimbabwe.

“l have been trying to get the information about the unavailable of Multichoice’s Gotv signal from Gotv office and their Facebook platform with no avail until l came across one of your article in the herald announcing the launch of Gotv in Zimbabwe way back in march 2013. l have realised how useful you can be to us the disgruntled customers & subscribers of Gotv in probably getting Multichoice Zimbabwe give the public the position concerning the unavailability of Gotv signal. It’s now more than two weeks without the signal and no official comment from Multichoice Zimbabwe as in what challenges are they facing, for how long can we wait and what progress have they made so far in trying to restore the signal. My trust is that probably since you managed to write a story about the launch you might have some contacts to ask about this challenge.l am hoping you can help us get better information at a more factual and accountable level as testified by your journalism expertise.

Hope to hear from you soon

Regards.”
Gift Ruhwaya Gotv Subscriber.
And the response from MultiChoice
“GOtv apologises for the service interruption on GOtv and appreciates our subscribers’ patience with this matter. All active GOtv subscribers are being offered a refund of US$75 when they bring in their GOtv decoder and the opportunity to purchase a DStv single view decoder which includes a month’s subscription to DStv Access bouquet.

Regarding the issue of how long customers can wait: Unfortunately we are unable to put time-lines to this as ongoing engagement with the relevant authorities is taking place to find a resolution.”

Liz Dziva PR & publicity manager, MultiChoice Zimbabwe.

Until next week remember this is television and its real!