NEWMAN Sianchali scored a wonderful first half header which settled a pulsating contest as Caps United edged bitter city rivals Dynamos to strengthen their Castle Lager Premier Soccer League championship credentials.
BY TAWANDA TAFIRENYIKA
The victory helped Caps maintain their two-point lead over closest challengers FC Platinum, who also won their encounter against Chapungu with two more rounds of matches left before the end of the campaign.
The win also snapped Dynamos’ 19-match unbeaten pristine record.
Caps showed great determination in the early stages as they dominated their rivals. They were duly rewarded on the 39th minute when Sianchali got to the end of a well-delivered cross by Valentine Musarurwa and rose majestically to plant a firm header into the far corner.
The goal lit up the National Sports Stadium as Caps fans broke into song and dance.
The Glamour Boys though did not throw in the towel as they responded with some dangerous attacks at the Caps goal.
Nigel Katawa came close to scoring at the stroke of the first half with his shot troubling Caps goalkeeper Tonderai Mateyaunga — who spilled the ball, but when Harrison Seremani pounced on the rebound, referee Ruzive Ruzive had blown for offside.
In the second half, Caps could have doubled their lead on 52rd minute, but goalkeeper Simbarashe Chinani denied Phineas Bhamusi with a classy save, tipping the ball over the
bar.
Blessing Sarupinda, who came in for injured Spencer Masunda, could have also added his name on the scoresheet after he did well to beat a couple of defenders, but failed to hit the back of the net.
Dynamos coach Tonderai Ndiraya, however, responded by pushing more numbers forward and got their best chance on 65th minute, but captain Edward Sadomba – who came in the second half, fluffed the opportunity as he was denied by Mateyaunga following a good set-up by Evans Katema.
Caps coach Darlington Dodo was delighted with the victory which he said would help boost his players’ confidence going into the remaining two fixtures.
“It was a very tough game, a tricky one considering this was a derby. I am very fortunate to be part of this. These players have made me proud. This is exactly what we as coaches demand; it’s the response we expect. These are games we envy to play. Grinding results against a team like Dynamos keeps their confidence growing in our next two matches,” he said.
Ndiraya said the derby was exciting, but bemoaned lack of concentration for his team’s defeat.
“It was exciting, in the first half we started on the back foot, Caps put us under pressure, but we rediscovered ourselves in the second half and took the game to them. We lost concentration and conceded what I would say a soft goal, we might give it to the striker Sianchali — a beautiful header but I thought our defenders didn’t apply the basics of defending,” he said.
Teams
Caps: T Mateyaunga, V Musarurwa, J Jangano, S Masunda (B Sarupinda 51’), D Mukandi, J Ngodzo, V Ndaba, R Chitiyo, N Sianchali (D Chungwa 90’)
Dynamos: S Chinani, E Jalayi, T Muringani (S Gwede 84’), M Mawadza, T Chisi, A Maliselo, W Sande, (E Sadomba 58’), K Dhemere, N Katawa (S Nhivi 46’)
DISTRIBUTOR and retailer of new tyres and tubes, National Tyre Services Limited (NTS), has opened a new fitment centre in the capital city’s Msasa industrial site as it expands its distribution network.
BY TAFADZWA MHLANGA
This comes months after the company re-modernised its Cripps Road branch in Harare’s Graniteside and rebranded the Samora Machel Avenue and Chinhoyi branches.
NTS commercial director Albert Ushe said the company was determined to get closer to its customers and the new branch demonstrated the company’s new image and model of branches.
“On a prime and accessible location, the offering exhibits the company’s commitment in offering conveniently customer centric and innovation-driven premium tyre solutions. The Msasa branch resembles the new NTS image and model of branches,” he said.
Ushe added that the company injected about $2 million into the project and was still expecting more expenses to emanate during the period of finalising the project.
He said the company created a property division to grow the business and is indexing all its revenue in United States dollars to hedge the business against inflation.
The Msasa branch is targeting the surrounding industrial area and the company is expecting more revenue to be generated through the branch.
The new NTS branch offers 3D computerised wheel alignment and wheel balancing services.
The company has so far opened 14 branches across the country which provide new tyres, tubes, retreading and various tyre management solutions.
In the period ended June 30, 2019, the group’s revenue improved by 133% to $8,6 million, which was 42% above the company’s budget.
NTS experienced shortages of foreign currency, steep increases in year-on-year inflation and reduced aggregate demand as businesses and consumers adjusted to the challenging economic environment.
Basing on month-on-month annual inflation figures, annual inflation in October was estimated at 440%.
Productivity was also affected by power outages.
The volume of tyres sold during the period decreased 51% and the retreading line volumes decreased 10% compared to the prior year.
The services line volumes decreased by 36%.
Despite the decline in volumes, the company remained profitable and positive cashflows were generated by the business.
NTS focuses on re-lugging tyres used in the agricultural and earth-moving sector as well as transport industry.
CIVIL society activists and other national and regional groups have made a clarion call on the African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation (Aripo) to increase access to affordable medicines in Zimbabwe through amendment of the Harare Protocol on industrial property.
BY PHYLLIS MBANJE
The stakeholders, who include those from the Health Global Access Project (Gap), accused the Aripo secretariat of prioritising collection of patent fees on unworthy patents instead of ensuring the right of access to affordable medicines for all.
Patents on medicines give patent holders the exclusive right to make, sell and import medicines and to charge whatever high price will maximize profits. For a low-resourced country like Zimbabwe, steeped in a myriad of economic challenges, it means that patients will go without treatment because neither they nor the government can pay.
“Every single patent on medicines for HIV, TB, cancer, and hepatitis C in Zimbabwe was granted by means of the African Region Intellectual Property Office rather than Zimbabwe national patent office. And virtually every medicine also has multiple patents granted by Aripo that extend the total length of monopoly protection beyond the original 20-year patent term,” Brook Baker, Health Global Access Project senior policy analyst, told NewsDay last week.
The activists also said Aripo is not taking full advantage of all flexibilities allowed under international law to accelerate generic competition.
“We have submitted detailed critiques of the Harare Protocol and of national legislation that has not yet incorporated life-saving flexibilities. Unfortunately, the Aripo secretariat seems to prioritise collecting patent fees on unworthy patents (as opposed) to ensuring the right of access to affordable medicines for all,” the said.
The groups also said the regional body had persistently refused to invite civil society to their meetings despite having promised to do so.
“Take bedaquiline, an important new medicine to treat multi-drug resistant tuberculosis, as an example. The first patent on the base compound of bedaquiline was filed in 2003 and expires in 2023. However, additional patents have been filed for bedaquiline’s specific use in treating TB and for a well-known salt form of bedaquiline combined with a well-known wetting agent.
“These weak secondary ‘evergreening’ patents don’t expire until 2025 and 2027, meaning that Zimbabwean patients have to pay whatever Johnson & Johnson wants to charge. Johnson & Johnson claims that its best ‘special effort’ price is $2 a pill or $400 for a six-month course of treatment,” he said.
Baker also questioned if many patients, whose lives are threatened by TB can afford that, particularly since bedaquiline must be combined with other expensive new TB drugs for effective treatment
This is despite research estimates which have claimed that generic companies could sell the same medicine profitably for as little as $0,25 a day — an eighth of the price.
Unfortunately, because of Aripo’s lax patent examination that routinely grants unwarranted primary and secondary patents, Zimbabwean patients will have to wait four extra years for generic competition and lower prices.
Meanwhile, civil society activists throughout the 18-country Aripo region are calling on their governments to prioritise public health and to put pressure on Aripo to rebalance the Harare Protocol to protect the right to health.
“Pharmaceutical patents should be excluded for least-developed country Aripo members, Aripo should examine patent applications stringently and reject secondary patent claims, and interested persons should also be permitted to oppose the grant of patents,” Baker said.
“The public in Zimbabwe and the officials in the health department should insist that the government protects their rights by demanding needed reforms at Aripo. If they do so, thousands of lives can be saved.”
A CHIMANIMANI man brutally assaulted his father with an iron bar, accusing him of being responsible for his misfortunes.
BY RICHARD MUPONDE
Hardlife Sokisi (26) of Ngorima village under Chief Ngorima appeared before Chipinge magistrate Joshua Nembaware last Friday facing charges of physical abuse as defined by section 4(1) as read with section (3)(1) of the Domestic Violence Act.
He was convicted and remanded in custody to tomorrow for sentence.
Hardlife told the court that he assaulted his father, Tobias Sokisi because he had refused to take him to traditional healers for exorcism
“I wanted to force him to go with me to traditional healers to consult because my children were always dying. I was told to bring my father and aunt. My father was refusing to go to the traditional healers, that’s why I beat him up. He was abusing me,” Hardlife said. Prosecutor Sesekedzai Mayera told the court that on November 10 at around midnight, Hardlife went to his father’s homestead accompanied by his sibling, Munyaradzi, who is still at large. They found him asleep and started accusing him of being a wizard who was responsible for their misfortunes.
His father did not respond and remained holed up in his bedroom.
Hardlife then forced open the door and grabbed his father by the collar and pulled him out.
Munyaradzi started assaulting Sokisi all over the body with an iron bar. Sokisi was saved by neighbours who heard his cries for help, leading to the pair running away from the scene.
Neighbours rushed Sokisi to hospital and it was discovered that he had suffered a broken rib which led to his stomach swelling and had a big gush on the forehead. A police report was made, leading to Hardlife’s arrest.
Harare City Council has refused to take full responsibility for poor service delivery in the capital, saying ratepayers, who are not fulfilling their obligations, are also to blame.
BY LORRAINE MUROMO
Speaking at council and labour unions debriefing held in Harare last Thursday, MDC secretary for elections, who is also a Harare councillor, Jacob Mafume described the issue of service delivery as a chicken and egg situation.
“We have to pay for the services in order for the service to come. Which starts first is a debate which everyone is engaged in, but people must understand that in these days for the telephone you must pay first before using the airtime, for data you pay first before using the airtime,” Mafume said.
“The council is the only one where people get service first and pay later. We use an arrears payment process and many residents do not understand that.
“They believe they are paying for what they are getting upfront. We give you a service first and you pay for it. That system is very difficult to sustain.”
Mafume also claimed that poor service delivery could not be totally pinned down on disgruntled workers, but someone had messed up.
“We are all aware of the inflationary environment and the harsh economic times as a result of austerity measures introduced at central government level. We have been trying to catch up and find ways to alleviate the welfare of employees.” he said
“The shortcomings of the council are not really caused by disgruntled workers, someone messed up and it’s not us. We are trying to do the best we can with the lemonade we are being served.”
Mafume said issues to do with inflation, shortage of cash and liquidity should be addressed to Finance minister Mthuli Ncube.
“Concerns being raised regarding inflation, cash shortage and issues of liquidation must be addressed to Mthuli. We are hoping our colleagues will persuade minister Mthuli to delay the effort of going to space or the moon so that we can use that money to deal with people here on earth. I am sure the moon can wait for us,” Mafume said.
ZIMBABWE’s democratic space continues to shrink under President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s rule despite government claims that several good laws have been crafted or aligned with the Constitution in line with international democratic requirements.
BY VENERANDA LANGA
Analysts said the continued bludgeoning of civil servants and opposition supporters whenever they want to express dissent over the high cost of living and measly salaries, is a sign of a desperate government trying to maintain the status quo.
They said the crisis in Zimbabwe has been worsened by continuous politicking in Parliament where the main opposition has been walking out on Mnangagwa’s addresses in the House; as well as disruptive behaviour by Zanu PF MPs whenever the Public Accounts Committee, chaired by Tendai Biti, is investigating government over serious financial misappropriations.
Several MDC supporters and unsuspecting public were left severely injured last week following a gathering where opposition leader Nelson Chamisa was to deliver his party’s Hope of the Nation Address.
The main opposition MDC MPs boycotted the 2020 national budget statement presentation. In retaliation, Zanu PF MPs also blocked an anti-corruption investigation into the Command Agriculture programme which was allocated US$2,8 billion in 2017 and US$3,5 billion in 2018
without Parliament’s approval.
Constitutional lawyer James Tsabora said the crisis in Zimbabwe emanated from the State’s hard-handed response to civil action, as well as attempts to hide State corruption through disruption of parliamentary committee work.
“The democratic space has shrunk due to the national economic crisis. First of all, the State response to the public protests has not changed after the passage of the Maintenance of Order and Peace Act (Mopa) which, like the previous Public Order and Security Act (Posa) has not motivated any change in the behaviour and attitude of the police against public protests by the opposition or civil servants,” Tsabora said.
“With the coming of the new Constitution, there was hope that the democratic space will expand, but like Posa there is no expansion and police heavy-handedness has increased.”
Tsabora said the negative political feelings proliferating in the country have now affected Parliament business.
“The Public Accounts Committee is doing a good job by exposing corruption, but the disruption of its proceedings is a cover up of graft. The Constitution is clear about transparency and accountability, as well as good governance and disruptions of PAC are a sign that it is doing its work, as well as an attempt to stop it from exposing corruption. Parliament is, however, a political institution and disruptions are expected,” he said.
Political analyst Eldred Masunungure said since the July 2018 elections, political space for non-Zanu PF actors had shrunk at an alarming rate.
“All this is linked to the political stalemate in the country which leads to deep partisanship essentially between Zanu PF and the MDC. It results in that if doctors and other civil servants want to demonstrate they are pigeonholed in one of the political parties and associated with the opposition and yet their grievances are rooted on the imploding economy and are genuine.
“At State institutions like Parliament, we are also seeing these partisan games playing out and rendering the Parliament process of oversight unfunctional. It is a reciprocal political game where the MDC boycotts Mnangagwa and now Zanu PF has discovered a counter weapon by sabotaging committees headed by the MDC,” Masunungure said.
He said these political games are then used to hide government corruption where there have been financial leakages to cartels linked to the ruling elites.
“On paper and in domestic and regional forums government is pretending that the democratic space is there, but in practice there is shrinkage,” Masunungure added.
Zimbabwe Exiles Forum spokesperson Sibanengi Dube said the ugly battering of citizens showed Zanu PF’s lack of solutions to the political and economic problems ravaging the country.
“The embattled regime is only resorting to their last option of bullets, teargas and batons to maintain their access to the national Treasury. What matters most to them is sustaining their presence,” Dube said.
IT is not unusual to hear Zimbabweans, mainly those of 45 years and above, saying the Rhodesian era was better when they look at the suffering our people are currently experiencing. They do not say this to spite the current administration or to undermine the importance of the war of liberation, but evidence suggests so.
The infrastructure and architecture that shapes the socio-economic character of the country was designed and developed by settlers (vapambevhu) who believed that the best way to enjoy colonising a country was to develop and make it comfortable for its people. This is contrary to what we are experiencing from our own leaders who believe the best way to free a nation is to steal from it and impoverish the people by denying them personal freedoms and progress. And they see the renaming of roads and infrastructure, built by the settler, as a sign of development. They make it appear as if it is impossible or illegal to use our very own resources for our development.
It is not my intention to compare the two eras as doing so would require more space and time. In this instalment, I want to discuss how the varying attitudes of leaderships determine the course and fate of a country. With all due respect to those who genuinely and wholeheartedly gave their lives to freeing Zimbabwe, the current state of affairs in the country makes the entire liberation struggle read like one huge fuss.
What really went wrong? Our country is in this desperate state today because of politics which destroyed the economy. The same politics has not allowed he country to move forward and foster economic growth. We are in that state in which nothing grows or moves forward without addressing the political problems.
By political problems, we simply mean the ruling party — a party that knows how to win elections by all means possible, but lacks the acumen and impetus to govern. Maybe they lack the will and interest to do so and yet the welfare of the nation rests in their hands. It is a party that is quick to react to protests because they challenge their political power and yet they cannot address life-saving sectors such as health, water, food and others. Power and plunder are their priorities and not developing the nation.
Those who went to war to liberate the nation have mutated into an insatiable and destructive virus that devours everything and anyone who challenges its short comings. With every battle to right the wrongs, the people’s power and ability to fight is gradually and yet steadfast emaciating. The resolve — the remaining power to change the situation — is sadly dying.
Because of the ruling party’s dexterity in protecting power even at the expense of human lives — money and investments — the key drivers of economic growth — have continued to shy away from the country. No one and nothing believes in us unless there is change. This includes earnings from the exploitation of our natural resources. Political will, resources and the people are the main drivers of any form of growth. And yet in our case, it is not only the lack of will that is blurring the way, but available resources mean nothing to the people who are supposed to benefit from them.
It is the same resources that attracted the settlers to come and colonise Zimbabwe and other African countries. These are the same resources they used to build the current infrastructure, improve access services and to establish a strong economy. One critical lesson we learn from the colonialists is that accumulating wealth is nothing unless your people are able to enjoy it.
This explains why the white settlers did more to improve the lives of their people, the trickle down benefits of which were enjoyed by black people compared to what the country is going through today. The 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI), for instance, was partly to cut Britain’s control over the Rhodesian government’s economy and the means of production. They understood that in order to develop, they needed to invest local resources and the earnings from them than to perpetually feed the British economy at the expense of their own development. While UDI was received with anguish by Britain and its international allies, it paid off as it resulted in one of the biggest economies in Africa in less than 15 years.
This is not a matter of comparing performance between the pre and post-independence regimes, but simply elucidating how the varying interests and attitudes of leaderships determine the fate of a nation. Today’s politician, mainly in the ruling party, is obsessed with personal gain and enrichment, short-changing the development of their environment. It is possible that they have externalised more resources out of the country than the settlers in their quest to prosper alone.
If the settlers knew that this was the mentality of the African politician, there was certainly no need to invest in arms to colonise countries as our leaders are doing exactly or even worse than what the settler did. As they plunder and externalise resources, while globetrotting asking for development aid, one wonders if it is illegal to use funds earned and raised from the exploitation of local resources for our own development?
Tapiwa Gomo is a development consultant based in Pretoria, South Africa. He writes here in his personal capacity.
MANY people talk about the need to add value in whatever work they do. Value-addition transforms dire situations into productive and sustainable ones, especially where value chain approaches are used. These include ways stakeholders communicate climate information to improve the way it is understood and utilised. Climate information providers should not just communicate critical information anyhow, but it should add value and transform lives. Therefore, it should not just be the dissemination of whatever climate change information, but that kind of information that is useful in people’s lives.
Communicating climate change information enhances decisions that are people-centred and increases resilience. As this is done, communities would be better prepared and positioned to manage the impacts of climate change and weather extremes. In this regard, it has been proved to be problematic on how stakeholders use climate information value chains to influence decision-making. There is need for climate information to be context-specific, generated and influenced by weather and climate data. This will in turn, improve decision-making and add value in terms of learning, training, preparedness and protection to climate change effects.
Climate information value chains should stand to benefit stakeholders and target situations in best possible ways, just as the processes and frameworks suggest. Each stage of the information value chain is fundamental, life-saving and transformative, hence it should be taken seriously. In this view, collaborative and collective efforts are required to get things done and benefit the target audiences to realise resilience.
Climate information value chains need to take a multi-stakeholder approach, which is an inclusive and interactive approach designed not to leave anyone behind. The way weather forecasts are communicated should add value to farmers, travellers, workers and any other concerned citizens. How disasters are approaching should be able to be accessed by the peripheral communities in order for them to decide and prepare. Natural disasters and cyclones strike people in their sleep or indoors as a result of their own lack of preparedness and denial, not because communicating climate information value chains would have gone wrong somewhere in the process.
Beneficiaries of this kind of information should be initiated into sustainable engagements, interactive and participatory pathways, good enough to guarantee them forms of feedback according to their target needs. For these to succeed, climate information providers are required to demonstrate a good understanding of the target audiences, situations and their needs from a cross-section point of view. The context and scope of climate information value chains may not be transformative enough if they become prescriptive, rather than being exploratory, sufficiently collaborative and engaging in nature. These approaches would empower stakeholders to solve specific information needs inherent in a changing climate. Beneficiaries are the most important stakeholders, first and foremost, therefore, they need to be the focal point, in order to become part and parcel of the whole discourse. Challenges of being ill-equipped to handle climate impacts and low adaptive capacities are associated with the target audiences, their situations and needs. In this regard, their target needs are not necessarily their wants, but their necessities, which should be taken seriously.
Climate information value chains should strategically feed into sustainable decisions that are aimed at especially improving food security and environmental sustainability. Furthermore, the information should assist in improving water management strategies, reduce crop losses (especially post-harvest losses), forests conservation, wild-life conservation, energy and power conservation and improved quality of the people’s health as well as that of the livestock, among a host of many. For these reasons, the target situations should be strategically positioned to access valuable climate information services they need to improve their livelihoods. It is also significant that, climate information value chains should help to fill in procedural, knowledge and information gaps among target audiences and stakeholders. These beneficiaries of climate change value chains are also required to participate in building their capacities and transform their lives, as target audiences who need the climate information value chains, more than anyone else.
The success of the climate information services and value chains is strongly influenced by the appropriate communication tools and channels used by the information providers.
The communication tools like public engagements, participatory interactions and dialoguing as well as community radios, mobile phones, printed materials and visuals, are designed to manage challenges of communication breakdown, misinformation and communication massaging. While it is true that there are some communication channels that leave out certain important stakeholders, human-centred efforts should be harnessed to close these gaps.
In this regard, the environment in which the climate information services are disseminated should be highly conducive, appealing and supportive in nature, in order to make public engagements possible. Between the climate information providers and the target audiences, there are influencers who are politicians, religious leaders, traditional leaders and professionals, who need to be involved, not because they either know or they don’t but because they are opinion leaders with influence. These are key actors in information value chains and they assist in instilling order and discipline in these critical interactive engagements. They can operate positively or negatively depending on the situation at hand not forgetting their ideologies, stand points and world-views.
The positive working environment would stimulate policy and regulation improvements, including political will to get things done. Cultural norms are also critical and informative because they influence the people’s behaviours and world-views.
In this regard, it is also important to let beneficiaries see why they should benefit from climate information value chains and also why they need to change their behavioural tendencies, instead of how they should change their behaviours in the first place. In the eyes of the beneficiaries, the providers of climate information value chains should be knowledgeable, trustworthy, credible and competent rather than otherwise doubting Thomas’s. It is also important that the stakeholders are not short-changed in terms of knowledge capacities, training and orientation. The resources should also not only be available, but permitting to move the information value chains forward. This include whether the resources are being handled appropriately or not and are they reaching the intended beneficiaries or not.
The target audiences should not only be recipients of climate information value chains, but above all, they need to show hunger for these information services.
In this regard they should always go out of their ways to look for information services rather than wait as passive recipients. In attempts to make the climate information value chains accessible to everyone concerned, the information need to be disseminated in the languages that they understand best.
Peter Makwanya is a climate change communicator. He writes in his personal capacity and can be contacted on: petrovmoyt@gmail.com
GOSPEL musician Togarepi Chivaviro’s son, Tinashe, who joined his father’s trade in August this year, has released a video for his first offering — Nguva DzaMwari — and is working on a six-track album set for release on January 7 next year.
BY TAFADZWA KACHIKO
The 15-year-old Tinashe is currently a Form Two student at Waddilove High School in Marondera. The new video, which attracted 3 000 YouTube views in just 10 hours after it was uploaded, was produced by award-winning producer Blessing Masanga.
Chivaviro said he was surprised to see his teenage boy singing when he visited him at school. “I wouldn’t know if I inspired him to be a musician, but this boy was a drummer since nine. He was never a microphone person until early this year when he went to Waddilove. I don’t know what they did to him. I was surprised when he requested me to help him record his songs,” he said. He said Nguva DzaMwari was “a testing-the-waters procedure” and the positive response prompted him to let his son record an album.
Chivaviro said he was excited that his son Tinashe and daughter Munashe, who features on his wife Juliet’s album, Perseverance, followed in his footsteps voluntarily.
“We had an agreement with Tinashe that during school terms he should focus on his studies and do music production during holidays. We did backing vocals on his video. I appear for less than 15 seconds, because I didn’t want to overshadow his great work.”
BY CHELSEA MUSAFARE GWERU-BASED gospel music outfit Joyful Praise was among the biggest winners at this year’s edition of the Prophet Emmanuel and Ruth Makandiwa Invitational Concert and Awards Night (Permican) at City Sports Centre in Harare last Friday where they won three of the six awards they had been nominated for.
The group won the Best Newcomer and Best Song awards for their hit track, Ngoro Yeminana, as well as the Best Group/Duo for the album, Joyful Praise Season 2.
They had also been nominated for Album of the Year, Best Producer and Best Songwriter awards. The group’s chief operations officer, Godfrey Mukodzo told NewsDay Life & Style that they were grateful for their victory.
“We are grateful to the Almighty for his grace and to all our fans for their support as a new group and for being outstanding amongst other gospel music groups,” he said.
Mukodzo said their music was divinely-inspired and also dealt with contemporary issues and people’s social life.
He promised their fans to look out for new material soon.
The new group went head to head with other big gospel outfits including Zimpraise and made their mark.
Top gospel musician Michael Mahendere, who also scooped the 2019 Most Viewed Gospel Song Online award, performed some of his plug tracks including Makomborero, My Witness and Salt of the Earth. Trending and award-winning songbird Janet Manyowa, who took to the stage in a green gown, wrapped up the set with Zadzisai and Nyasha Nengoni which had fans on the dance floor.
Under the Special Awards category, Endai Naizvozvo hitmaker Diva Mafunga who won the Legendary Award saluted gospel guru Mechanic Manyeruke for being his greatest inspiration.
The concert, complemented by impressive stage work and best MCs Miss Red, Becky and Tich Mataz, also witnessed performances from Jonah Chivasa and Nyasha Mguni, Gemma Griffiths, Kuda Mutsvene, Vabati vaJehovha, Mabel Madondo, Brian K, Tembelami, Zimpraise, Tatenda Mahachi and Sharon Manyika as well as Joyful Praise and Manyowa.
