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Arts Correspondents
It appears musicians will be divided over which event to attend after the Zimbabwe Music Awards were postponed to October 29, the same day as WENE Awards.
WENE organisers announced in March that the inaugural awards will be held on October 29 but that was before ZIMA postponed their event to the same date.

In an interview, WENE publicist Robert Tapfumanei said they were meeting on Saturday to map a way forward.

“All I can say as Rooftop Promotions is that we had announced in March that the WENE awards ceremony would be held on October 29. After Zima’s new developments we are going to sit down with the adjudicators and I can only be able to give a press release on Monday,” he said.

Pressed if they were going to change the date, Tapfumanei said they were unlikely to change the dates. ZIMA announced early this week that they had postponed the event to allow the chairman, Joseph Nyadzayo, to attend an important meeting elsewhere.

“This is an important ceremony for us because we are coming back after a seven-year absence. Everything is in place for the awards but the chairman has another commitment and we cannot proceed without him,”

“We cannot continue with the ceremony without him. Such an important event needs his presence and we regret to announce that we have to move the awards to October 29 in accordance with his schedule. We regret any inconvenience caused,” a statement from the organisers read.

So far, musicians are counting their losses after some of them who had booked for shows had to cancel only for ZIMA to postpone the event at the eleventh hour. Musicians, among them Trevor Dongo, Soul Jah Love, Shinsoman, Kelly Rusike and Willom Tight have expressed negative sentiments over the postponement.

This year’s ZIMA is set to honour Cde Dick Chingaira. The singer, songwriter, composer and most importantly an ex-combatant affectionately known as Cde Chinx, will be aptly honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award, which has been dubbed the Chairman’s Award or Cheukashure Award .

The special accolade will be given to Cde Chinx for his outstanding contribution to the music industry.

Cde Chinx, whose music appeals to a crossover audience, was born on September 26 1955 in a family of nine. He started music at the tender age of nine at Sunday schools.

Cde Chinx is on record saying war is not a dinner party. This was in apparent reference to the war of the liberation where many sacrificed their life and limb so that Black people would have equal rights in this country.

Given the hardships that came with the war such as disease, hunger and death, music was the only to ease the pain.

In such difficult times, there was need to boost the morale of the people and the comrades where the wheels that kept the war going while music was the lubricant .

Those where were alive in the seventies will remember songs like “Maruza Imi”, “Sendekera Mukoma”, “Zimbabwe Ndeyedu” and the popular kongonya dance during the night vigils also known as pungwes. The songs became popular in the eighties as radio stations which had earlier censored them were freed for liberation music.

It was during that time when Cde Chinx would compose a number of songs to fit different situations since music played an important role in keeping the fighting spirit burning in the hearts of the freedom fighters.

Meanwhile expectation is high among artistes as they wait to find out who will walk away with the coveted Zima accolades in various categories at the red carpet affair.

For those that did not make it on the nominees list all hope is not lost as the public will vote for Song of the Year via the Whatsapp platform which means anyone might walk away with that one.