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Arts Correspondents

Mbira musical outfit Mazwi, emerged the winner last Saturday at the Chibuku Road To Fame Harare provincial competitions after beating 10 groups at an event held at Pfumojena Beerhall in Mbare. 

The tourney, which is a brainchild of Delta Beverages, was held under the theme, “Imba Tinzwe — Cula Sizwe Super Star!” 

Mazwi Group walked away with US$2 500 while second place went to an Afro-fusion outfit, the Afro-Pride group, who pocketed US$1 500 and the third place went to the sungura outfit, the Young Legends group and were given US$ 1000. 

Speaking at the sidelines of the competitions, Mazwi Group manager Fungai Blessing Chinogaramombe said that they were ecstatic to win the competition. 

“As a group, we are super excited and ecstatic after winning this prestigious competition,” he said. “It is not easy to win a competition like this where there are ten groups that are all eyeing to win, we have fought a big battle.” 

Chinogaramombe and his colleagues are set to participate in the national finals which are set for October 14 in Harare. 

He said they had hoped that they win the national competitions like what they have done on the provincial level. 

“Now we are oiling our machinery so that we can participate in the national finals which are set on October 14 in Harare,” he said. “I know the competition is not going to be cheaper because there are ten groups from ten provinces but I believe in ourselves, we want to win it.” 

This time, the competition was a mixture of many genres, unlike the past when there was only sungura. 

The genres ranged from Zim Hip-Hop, Zimdancehall and traditional music. 

Delta Beverages head of corporate affairs Patricia Murambinda said they allowed many genres to the list because they wanted to cater for many talents. 

“This time we have decided to add more genres to the list so that we can extend our talent search,” she said. “In the past years, we have used the sungura genre only in our competitions which is very unfair to many other genres.” 

Since its inception in 2001, Chibuku Road To Fame has managed to bring many artistes to the limelight. The likes of Romeo Gasa and Tindo Ngwazi are some of the beneficiaries. 

Ngwazi, who won the competition in 2016, attended the Harare provincial finals and was grateful to Delta for the initiative of hosting the talent search show. 

“These competitions are very vital in talent searching, I’m very thankful to Delta Beverages for their initiative,” he said. “In Zimbabwe, we have so many talents that are buried and in need of exhumation so these competitions can be helpful.” All the provincial competitions have ended and all the logistics are now in place for the national competitions to take place on October 14.