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Kumbirayi Shoniwa Entertainment Reporter
Albert Nyathi has been reappointed Zimbabwe Music Rights Association board chairperson while gospel musician Charles Charamba to be his deputy for the next three years.
Nyathi was the chairperson of the previous board while Charamba takes over from the late Prince Tendai who was the deputy chairperson at the time of his death in 2011.

The recently appointed board also includes musicians Joyce Simeti, Bob Nyabinde, First Farai, Metro Studios proprietor Emion Sibindi and Borniface Manyonganise.

Only Nyathi, Simeti and Nyabinde were retained from the previous board during the elective ZIMURA annual general meeting held in December last year.

Speaking to the The Herald Entertainment after his appointment, Charamba expressed his willingness to be part of the team responsible for the rights and welfare of musicians in the country, and hoped that his experience as a pastor would help in this regard.

“It is a great responsibility to be able to help and shape other artistes. As you know the organisation is not about rights only, but also about counselling and holding educational workshops for all our musicians,” he said.

Charamba however, expressed reservations at the make-up of the board saying that he would have preferred it to be a bit more gender balanced in the future.

Nyathi expressed his optimism for the coming year saying that the association is happy at the reassurance they have been given by Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo regarding collection of revenue from broadcasters.

“We now enjoy an amicable relationship with the ministry which is ensuring that broadcasters honour their obligations and remit royalties for the music which they play on their stations.

“Our problems with ZBC will hopefully be a thing of the past, and currently Zi-Fm is paying up whilst Star-Fm are finalising their payment structures and will be remitting soon,” Nyathi revealed.

He also said that the board is working out modalities on sorting out the issue of incomes for deceased artiste’s families, pointing out that the families have a right to collect the royalties of their deceased relatives who were members of the association.