Tuku idea behind ZIMA’s Cheuka Shure musical award
After years of protracted lobbying by Tuku to have the music industry support his idea of artistes awarding outstanding individual fellow artistes for distinguished contributions in their careers, the Zimbabwe Music Awards (ZIMA) finally endorsed the Cheuka Shure/Bheka Emva award conceptualized by Tuku.

Cheuka Shure/Bheka Emva is now a permanent category in the ZIMA annual awards. For conceptualizing the award ZIMA gave Tuku the honors of awarding the maiden trophy (2006) to an artiste of his choice closest to his heart for shaping his career and nurturing him. As such, Tuku honored Zexie Manatsa, the legendary township music hero who made strings of hits in the 1970s. In 2007 another legend of township music, Green Jangano, received the award.

Below is an interview, courtesy of ZIMA, that Tuku gave on the idea behind the Cheuka Shure/Bheka Emva award: “As artists we have our own role models in music…people who inspire us musically and support our creative work. Over the years we have been lobbying the industry, including musical awards, to consider proposals for musicians to honor fellow musicians.

“The proposals have unfortunately been falling on deaf ears until now when ZIMA has accepted my idea to provide the platform for musicians to honor fellow musicians. The idea is to acknowledge what other musicians (and in other cases non-musicians) have done in shaping or developing the musical careers of artistes.

“ZIMA accepted the whole idea including my proposal that Zexie Manatsa should receive the debutant award in recognition of his role in nurturing me during my formative years as a musician. I owe a great deal to Manatsa for exposing me to the music industry at performance level.

“Manatsa took me as his supporting act on tour in the country in the 1970s, the very first time for me to perform in regions like Matabeleland. I didn’t have musical instruments and Manatsa provided them.

“Over the years Manatsa had his low moments in music when things did not work for him well. But he did not allow his misfortune to affect his career. He persevered, rising from the ashes to move on with his career. There are musicians who have failed to rise from hard times and have allowed misfortune to kill their career. But not for Manatsa.