The Sunday News
Raisedon Baya
I WRITE this article waiting for the 2018 Presidential results. There is not much anxiety though as everyone in the house kind of knows what will be announced. What we all don’t know as we wait are the actual numbers and the percentages but we know the man who will be the president for the next five years. Just hoping the results will actually be out by the time you read this article.
It has been an interesting couple of weeks. Campaigns and the actual elections. The weeks have been quite dramatic and eventful as we all expected with the first post-Mugabe elections. First, Zimbabweans must be commended for voting in peace.
At least the voting itself was smooth and peaceful — people focused on casting their votes. Trouble only started after all the parliamentary results had been announced and the nation waited for presidential results. As I write the nation is mourning the death of six civilians who died after a demonstration that went wrong in Harare.
In Bulawayo there were about four artistes who entered the elections as candidates. These were in the race for either MP or councillor. The sector has serious hopes in some of them.
However, all hope was lost after all lost in their different areas. In fact only one independent candidate managed to get a seat and that is Temba Mliswa in Norton.
Other high profile independent candidates lost across the whole country. To be honest it is very necessary to have one or two artistes or at least people who understand the arts being part of local and national Government.
There are a lot of local Government initiatives started during the Smith era that have died a natural death because current councillors no longer see these as priorities.
Imagine how beneficial it would be to have local policies that favour artistes and their work. A council that understands and appreciates the arts will have resources and facilities for the promotion and development of the sector.
It is the same with national Government. We were hoping that once these artistes were elected they would go to Parliament and make noise and insist Government properly supports and funds the arts. Just before the elections the ministry responsible for arts and culture supposedly launched a national culture policy — a document that the whole sector has been waiting for, for years.
To show lack of respect for the sector the ministry launched the document without important stakeholders having a glimpse of the rough draft. Now a week after the launch no one in the sector has set eyes on this document and yet this is a document that is supposed to give direction and spearhead growth in the sector.
Now that we know we have no artistes representing us at both local and national Government it’s back to square one.
The sector needs a long-term strategy, in fact, a two-pronged strategy that will deal with how to get a few artistes sitting as councillors and MPs in the future and also lobbying and advocating for favourable policies in coming five years.
But an effective strategy needs the sector to come together and unite first — it needs the sector sitting down and prioritising their issues first. It also needs the sector speaking with one voice, because without unity and speaking in one voice we should forget any meaningful and effective dialogue with those in power.
