HARARE - Book Café founder Paul Brickhill, Fred Zindi and Oliver Mtukudzi’s former manager Debbie Metcalfe, are part of the six-member Wene Music Awards Adjudication Panel unveiled by Rooftop Promotions yesterday.
The high-powered jury, announced in Harare yesterday, also includes Nigel Munyati, a founding trustee of the Zimbabwe International Film Festival Trust (ZIFFT), Joyce Jenje Makwenda, a writer, documentary filmmaker and actress and Albert Nyathi, a poet, actor, musician, arts advocate and administrator.
The organisers of the new music awards are hoping that revealing the identity of the adjudicators will steer the Wene Music Awards away from the controversy that has dogged the National Arts Merit Awards (Nama) over its non-disclosure of jury members.
Brickhill, the chairperson of the six-member Wene jury, is convinced that the new music awards will earn the respect of the Zimbabwean music community. “What I can say today is that the Wene Music Awards Adjudicators Panel sets exemplary, personal, collective governance standards, and desires to celebrate Zimbabwean music by placing a Wene Award among the highest honours a music practitioner can ever achieve,” said Brickhill.
“Awards are different the world over and have their own principles and processes. “As far as the panel of adjudicators is concerned Wene Award judging principles have been largely determined, which now serve as the basis for good governance practice. “From here there is a tremendous task to determine all processes in accordance with principles.”
The chairperson of awards adjudicators Panel admits that their decisions will deservedly undergo scrutiny. “All awards presentations will be accompanied by scrupulous citation stating the reasons for the award, to exacting standards and available immediately upon presentation to the media and public domain. Even a jury must be held to account; this is our governance standard,” said Brickhill.
Brickhill added that the inaugural edition will be restricted to four awards; recorded music, live music, lifetime achievement and various services to the music industry.
The inaugural Wene Music Awards ceremony is set for October 29.