COVID-19 buries Nama awards
THE National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) has been forced to postpone this year’s edition of the National Arts Merit Awards (Nama) as the global COVID-19 pandemic continues to choke the creative sector.
The awards ceremony that was scheduled for February 27 in Harare and has been pushed forward to March 27.
NACZ director Nicholas Moyo, in a statement, said the awards’ postponement was in light of the level four lockdown conditions announced by the government in January to curb the spiralling COVID-19 cases in the country.
“NACZ would like to advise stakeholders in the cultural and creative sector, sponsors and the nation at large that the #NAMA Legends @40 awards that will honour 40 living legends will now be held on March 27, 2021,” Moyo said.
He said the pushing forward of the awards ceremony by a month will allow the event organisers and suppliers to make up for the downtime during the much more stringent lockdown conditions which include reduced business time and travel restrictions.
“The NAMA process includes various planning and implementations stages that were disrupted by the implementation of the lockdown and for us to host a credible event it has become necessary to push forward the date to allow for the smooth running of the awards,” he said.
Moyo said the awards ceremony is mostly going to be a virtual event following the COVID restrictions on gatherings.
“NACZ is now working with various service providers to make sure that the event is available to all Zimbabweans across multiple viewing channels,” he said.
Moyo said they had engaged various arts associations and captains in the sector who had submitted names of legends in their respective sectors as potential recipients of the honorary awards. “The process of receiving nominations has been closed. The jury is now in the process of reviewing the entries after which they will submit their list of nominees for consideration by the board,” he said.
NACZ is this year hosting the #NAMA legends@40 Awards under the theme Our Legacy, Our Pride to honour 40 legends in celebration of the country’s 40 years of independence.