WHEN one enters a contest, they expect fairness to come into play. “If I’m the best, I should win, if not — tough luck!” What then should happen if you deserve to win, but do not win because somebody else mistakenly failed to enter your entry?
JONATHAN MBIRIYAMVEKA
This is what happened to United Kingdom-based star, Quonfuzed. And he is terribly unhappy about it. He is furious!
As a result of the blunder, Quonfuzed, who topped last year’s music charts, was not nominated for the Zimbabwe Music Awards (Zima) 2023 edition.
Seeing the gravity of the mistake, Zima were this week forced to openly apologise to Quonfuzed in a letter.
The Zimas were held at the weekend at Avondale’s 7 Arts Theatre where several musicians, the likes of Freeman, Janet Manyowa, Josh Meck and others, won gongs for their efforts in music.
However, things came to a head after it was discovered that the “Stop It, I Like It” singer had not been considered for the awards even though he had submitted his music.
A letter of acknowledgement from Zima dated 5 June, reads: “Dear Quonfuzed. The Zimbabwe Music Awards would like to apologise to Quonfuzed for passing over his submissions in the recently held Zima 23.
“By the time this error was noticed the adjudication process had reached an advanced stage and his submissions could not be included. The Zima executives unreservedly apologises to Quonfuzed, his management team and his fans. Yours Sincerely Zima Executive Committee.”
And stating as a matter of fact, Quonfuzed took to his official Facebook page and slammed Zima organisers, describing them as “corrupt” and for “dictatorship”.
“We are so used to a corrupt and dictatorship system which says ‘ngatishandei nezviripo or tonyora everywhere you possibly can’ to the extent that if one publicly flags out an issue it becomes a problem and you get told ‘unotaurisa unongocomplainer’ . . .”
“DO YOU THINK I DONT KNOW THAT THESE ISSUES ARE SOLVED BY BRIBES? DO YOU REALLY THINK I CANNOT ALSO BUY THE AWARDS? Chimbomirai imimi! (please give me a break).”
Quonfuzed, born McDonald Sheldon, also alleged massive corruption regarding awards ceremonies in Zimbabwe.
“It’s these small things that you want to be ignored that actually make an industry functional and purposeful and they need fixing.
So, it’s my duty as a public influencer to expose these nonsensical doings when I see them happening.
“I see concerned people asking ‘ko Q makamuvengerei or mamunyira’ it’s only because I don’t want to buy an award and I know it seems like it’s a whole board of people involved but trust me it’s just the name Zima and Zimbabwe.
“As a Zimbabwean I know it’s just a few individuals who I can easily send a US$50 in order to win and they most probably don’t really care less about doing any research and most likely don’t have a clue about what’s happening in the music industry.
“But they are put in these big positions to make national decisions which greatly affect a lot of people (artists) and believe me this nonsense will not just affect Q alone. I know many artists are silent and are in fear of expressing themselves,” he said.
“This corrupt poorly run system will not only affect me but it will also affect the next generation of artists to come after me if not challenged and changed.”
Quonfuzed hailed Seh Calaz for always expressing his views whenever he sees that his rights have been violated.
This year’s edition comes hot on the heels of a branding exercise that saw Zima making some changes by injecting new blood into the executive committee but unfortunately it turned out to be a disaster. Quonfuzed could not be reached for comment at the time of going to print.
This year there were 25 categories and entries were for 24 categories with one being a special award, The Lifetime Achievement Award which does not require any submissions.
The Zimas 2023 edition were held under the theme: “Re-Imagining The Industry”.
