TOURISM and Hospitality Industry minister Walter Mzembi will be the guest speaker at the inaugural Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) 100 Great Zimbabweans awards event to be held in Harare on June 6.
BY TAPIWA ZIVIRA
The awards are meant to celebrate Zimbabweans, who have made sacrifices without expecting grand external rewards, in favour of simply doing what the people around them need the most.
The initiative is being run by AMH — publishers of NewsDay, The Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard — in partnership with the City of Harare, AB Communications’ ZiFM Stereo, ZB Bank, CBZ, World Vision and DHL, among others.
To celebrate these individuals, AMH, through its flagship NewsDay brand, invited nominations from Zimbabweans through email, social media and newspaper fill-in forms.
NewsDay Editor Wisdom Mdzungairi said the initiative had received great support from across the world, as Zimbabweans joined the debate on greatness and sent in their contributions on who they thought deserved to be among the top 100 great citizens of this country.
“NewsDay simply provided the platform so that Zimbabweans could freely choose those they think are great citizens without undue influence — be they political, business, economic or otherwise,” he said.
“Of course, we are aware that there is always a debate on who deserves to be accorded such a status.”
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Mdzungairi said from the nominations, it had been learnt that Zimbabwean heroes were those who do right things for the right reasons without expecting external rewards.
“Their sacrifice is what resulted in most of them being nominated. Hence, through this process, Zimbabweans were able to define who the top 100 great Zimbabweans are, and why they selected them,” he said.
“What is more is that as AMH, we came up with a credible team of adjudicators to give credibility to the whole process — lawyers, auditors, etc. We have had numerous firsts before, however, this project is another milestone for NewsDay and its parent company AMH.”
Six independent adjudicators, invited to give the much-needed integrity impetus and endorsed by a reputable auditing firm, have since completed the adjudication and verification process and the final list of nominees will be published this week in NewsDay.
The 100 Great Zimbabweans Awards ceremony will be an annual event.
This year’s inaugural edition looks at the last 10 years ending December 31, 2016 identifying the country’s less obvious personalities and unsung heroes from 12 categories namely — rising stars, sports, arts and culture, media and film, education, science and technology, environment and agriculture, civil activism, business and law, health, greatest entertainer, greatest diasporans and peoples’ choice.
Readers nominated a person they believed to be a great Zimbabwean under the categories and stated the reasons for their nomination.
