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in Bulawayo.
The announcement was made by the director of the National Arts Council, Mr Elvas Mari, at the Amakhosi Elite 400 Cinema in Bulawayo on Saturday in his keynote address at the Amakhosi Golden Awards.
However, Mr Mari was quick to state that there are conditions to be met before Bulawayo can consider it a done deal.
“While the board of NAC has approved the idea in principle we need to have support from the Bulawayo stakeholders including the artistes, corporate world, media, local authorities and the political leadership,” he stated.
He also pointed out that the funding of the event would have to be guaranteed before the event can take place.
But he also promised that NAC will give all the support that is in their power and would soon hold a tripartite meeting involving NAC, the Bulawayo representation and the Nama event organiser to chart the way forward.
Mari’s speech came after the presentation of the awards to 24 young performers in the dancing, modelling and singing fields.
The awards were presented by newly married songstress Sandra Ndebele-Sibindi and Judith Garfield Todd, an international author.
But only the latter did the honours as Mrs Sibindi sneaked in late and hid in the back then took off early with no explanation offered to the audience as to why she could not officiate.
The awards are in-house and were founded in 1995 to recognise and celebrate personal achievements of individuals and organisations that supported Amakhosi in the creation of quality Zimbabwean content for both local and international audiences. Each nominated individual finalist and winner got a Golden Award medal and a participation certificate as well as a Development Scholarship award to train at the Amakhosi Arts Academy for a full year.
Entertainment was provided by Clive Chigugu and an upcoming comedian from Bulawayo who gave a riotous performance and should have no problem in filling up the house. Guitarist Thembi “Ugogo” Ngwabi and Samson Banda put on a kwela song showing what the young are missing by ignoring wind instruments.
Nkululeko Dube, the director of Iyasa, which nurtured the dancers who delighted the country and beyond with their Banolila video in conjunction with Chase Skhuza, was the MC, a job he handled with aplomb.
Mr Cont Mhlanga, founder and executive director of Amakhosi Trust, also took the opportunity to announce the launch of the Amakhosi Elite 400 Theatre in conjunction with Rainbow Cinemas.
He said that the theatre would bring live performing arts to the city centre as the first step in the creation of Bulawayo’s own Broadway district.
“We will only have first-class acts here and those in training will remain at Amakhosi Village,” he revealed.
Mhlanga said they are bringing the box office concept in which an act will run on only if it can attract a paying audience. If not then it will be axed.
He said instead of artistes moaning for sponsorship from the corporate world, at the theatre they would earn their own living through ticket sales.
There are already seven productions slotted for the year at the venue, which will open in the first week of May to coincide with ZITF 2011. Among these is a musical comedy, which will be produced by Thoko Zulu, The Members who will be run by Daves Guzha as well as Chigugu with his comedy act.