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Saimon Mambazo Phiri (right), representing the awards board of organisers with United Refineries CEO Busisa Moyo in Bulawayo yesterday

Langalakhe Mabena, Showbiz Reporter
THE prestigious Bulawayo Arts Awards, which will be hosting their second edition on May 26 at the Large City Hall, have rebranded to Roil Bulawayo Arts Awards (RBAA) after United Refineries were unveiled as the major sponsors of the ceremony.

Speaking at a press conference which was held at the yet-to-be-opened Carne Casa Brazilian restaurant in the city yesterday, Saimon Mambazo Phiri – representing the awards board of organisers – said they had officially partnered with the cooking oil manufacturing company to improve the standard of the awards.

“We announced earlier this year that we need at least $50 000 for the awards to be successful and United Refineries has jumped on board and injected $20 000, making them our major sponsors.

“We’re proud to say that, from today, the awards will be called Roil Bulawayo Arts Awards,” said Phiri.

He said partners who sponsored last year’s event are still on board along with other new sponsors who include Zimbabwe’s leading Internet services provider ZOL and Proton.

Apart from the partnership, Raisedon Baya – who is one of the RBAA organisers – said submission of nominations had been closed last Friday. He said the response had been overwhelming as they received over 2 000 online nominations and 255 physical submissions.

“This year, many artistes submitted their works which is a good sign that people are taking the awards seriously. From the music category, we received 135 submissions, seven for theatre, 25 for film, 15 for literature, 18 for fashion, 13 for poetry, eight for comedy, six for photography, 15 from schools, eight for Visual Arts and eight nominations for the dance category.

“We’re now in the process of trimming the list so as to come up with the final nomination list,” said Baya.

“From the submissions, we observed that there’s a lot of good art creativity at grassroots level which Bulawayo is not paying much attention to. We also used nominations to evaluate and audit the whole Bulawayo arts sector focusing on which art is active and which genre is the most popular in the city.”

The nominees for this year’s RBAA will be officially unveiled next Friday followed by a nominees’ dinner which will be held a week before the esteemed awards take place.