TENDAI BHEBE IN BULAWAYO
The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) says it is geared to promote the arts sector as it moves increase economic growth in the city.
The BCC business and investment committee member Rodney Jele, who spoke at the Roil Bulawayo Arts Awards (RoilBAA) last week, said it was incumbent on the city to promote the arts sector since Bulawayo was declared a cultural hub.
“First of all as a city I think we are really happy about the past RoilBAA that we had over the weekend.
“We are saying as a city that our city was declared as a cultural hub so it is important for us to promote cultural or promote arts, hence the significance of the awards coming because they also create the economy, they create tourism during that period,” he said.
The awards are bankrolled by United Refineries Limited, through its cooking oil brand Roil.
Jele said when citizens are empowered the economy grows.
“Tourism creates economic vibrancy. We are saying these awards encourage artists to do projects to have projects they are doing in terms of arts so that they are also empowered,” he said.
“When someone is empowered as a city our economy grows. And as a local authority we are saying that the council is as rich as its citizens and poor as its citizens as well.
“If our people are empowered then at the end of the day we will be able to pay rates and our city will develop.”
This year’s awards were held over three days, a move that was taken to contain audiences in respect of the Covid-19 protocols and the methodology worked as planned.
However, the highlight of the awards was the finale which took place at the traditional venue, the Large City Hall on Saturday.
Busisa Moyo, the CEO of United Refineries, which is the main sponsor of the awards, said Roil will always be there to lubricate the awards.
“For the past four years, we were the main sponsor for the awards and what we have from this annual event is success.
“I can see we have people from outside Bulawayo and the country and this is a sign that the brand is growing. We’re looking forward to collaborating with other countries in making sure that our cultural stories don’t die,” said Moyo.
Nomalanga Nyathi from ZiFM Stereo, Business Times’ sister radio station, won an award for outstanding Radio DJ.
