This year’s annual Methodist Church in Zimbabwe, MCZ, (Harare District) music competitions held over the weekend, at Norton 1 primary were generally described as a circus by analysts and members of the public.
Misnormas including biased adjudication amidst suspected bribery scams for administrators and adjudicators were the order of the day.
One of the adjudicators,Tozi Mutowembwa is a choir master for Waddilove High School which automatically qualifies in the next stage of the competitions.
In this regard,Tozi deliberately eliminated choirs which he viewed as threats among them John Wesley and Marimba, just to mention a few.
Additionally, Tozi is a member of one of the contesting choirs which featured in top 3 , despite of a clearly poor performance.
Samaneka the Harare West Technical Director doubled as a choirmaster for Ebenezer and a key administrator of the mentioned music competitions who actually disbursed payments for adjudicators and other service providers. Again, It was not a surprise when he was rewarded with position 3 though his choir performed dismally.
Music analysts who attended this event including Mr Okay Machisa cited these irregularities as some stumbling blocks to the meaningful development in music within MCZ and beyond.
“This has been the greatest daylight robbery to brilliant choirs ,but I bet the truth shall be exposed as the majority of poor choirs have progressed to the next stage.In future MCZ should ensure transparency and accountability in their adjudication and the overall administration especially by appointing independent judges.”Said Peter Marau, a Harare based renowned music analyst.
Tozi referred all the questions to one Bishop Zwana who was not picking his phone by the time we took to the print.