Ultimatums, $4 million debt, artistes unpaid

Bruce Ndlovu and Vusumuzi Dube, Sunday Life Reporters
A YEAR after it presented one of the most colourful and vibrant celebrations of art in living memory, the Bulawayo Arts Festival appears to be on a downward spiral, with the arts fête failing to take off this year while council still owes service providers over $4 million from last year’s event and artistes are up in arms against organisers over unpaid fees.

Founded in 2020 and running under the tagline, “We Own Winter”, the Bulawayo Arts Festival was meant to be a celebration of Zimbabwe’s second largest city, the country’s self-declared cultural capital, and if last year’s event was anything to go by, it seemed that the city fathers had found a winning formula.

Through the arts, the Bulawayo City Council looked set to become a major highlight in the city’s cultural calendar, keeping the city’s stages warm at the onset of winter, especially after Covid-19 hit the arts sector hard over the last few years.

In addition, the Bulawayo Arts Festival was meant to cement the marriage between arts and tourism in the city, with last year’s festival used as a springboard to launch the Bulawayo Heritage Corridor.

Inxwala Grounds, the Hanging Tree, Dr Joshua Nkomo’s Statue, St Mary’s Basilica, Joshua Nkomo Museum and the Natural History Museum are all part of the Heritage Corridor.

In a historic visit to the City of Kings last year, President Emmerson Mnangagwa toured the Heritage Corridor while also officially opening the Bulawayo Arts Festival.

With the fate of the Heritage Corridor seemingly tied to the festival, National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) director Nicholas Moyo said: “ . . . the birth of Bulawayo Arts Festival brought in the identification of cultural heritage sites in and around Bulawayo, because they are of cultural of significance but above all they are areas that can be developed to become tourist and educational attractions.”

A year later however, there seems to be little promotion of both, with the Heritage Corridor barely marketed as a tourist attraction while the Bulawayo Arts Festival has seemingly died a quiet death away from the spotlight, despite the pomp that accompanied its birth three years ago.

Instead of the vibrant celebrations witnessed last year, this year’s Bulawayo Day festivities were low-key, with poet Desire Moyoxide and arts administrator Nkululeko Nkala putting together a free event at Nkulumane Hall.

It is not clear whether council was involved in the organisation of those celebrations.

According to the latest council minutes, despite a hefty $24 million budget, council expected its main contribution to the fest to be the use of its venues.

“It will be recalled that Council’s major contribution in the festival is the provision of Council-owned venues and arts spaces as well as taking care of the subsequent overheads.

Authority has already been sought for use and reservation of the Large and Small City Halls as well as the Amphitheatre for the BAF festivities.

Funding Mandate and Festival Budget, a total of twenty-four million four hundred and fifty thousand (ZWL24 450 000,00) was budgeted for this year’s festival and a ten million (ZWL 10 000 000,00) bridging finance was applied for from Government.

Authority has been sought for funding mandate from Council and to incur expenditure on (Vote 449, Item 00311) to facilitate hosting of the festival and ensuing celebrations,” the council minutes read.

However, despite support of Government, the council minutes indicate that the local authority is still in arrears from last year’s event.

“Last year, BAF requested Government intervention in liquidating the debt incurred during last year’s edition of the festival.

The Government through the Ministry of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation has pledged a grant of one million and five hundred thousand (ZWL 1 500 000,00) to help cover part of the costs incurred.

The anticipated support from Government is highly appreciated as it will reduce BAF arrears incurred during last year’s festival.

The arrears currently stand at ZWL 4  247 869,26,” the minutes read.

However, despite council resolutions, the impasse with artistes does not seem to have been resolved.

City artistes signed contracts which stated that they will be paid between $US100 and $US150 within 14 days of their performances.

The concerned artistes last week issued a seven-day ultimatum to the local authority to settle debts.

While it is unclear what action city artistes want to take if the city does not meet its end of the bargain, the city’s communications department told Sunday Life that they had not received any petition from artistes.

However, in July last year, Bulawayo City Council corporate communications manager Nesisa Mpofu told our sister publication B-Metro that payment had been received and that artistes would be paid.

“We have received funds from the Ministry of Youth, Arts, Sports and Culture and National Arts Council for the payment of artistes. We are currently processing payments.”

Meanwhile, city artistes last week opened a WhatsApp group that included various stakeholders in a bid to rally support behind their cause.

“Byo artistes/creatives have not been paid for their involvement in BAF 2021.

We implore the right officials to do the right thing.

I believe Bulawayo needs all of us, working together happily with trust, satisfaction.

I propose we reconnect and put our house in order for a better arts sector koNtuthu.

Asilwi, siyasebenza.

It is my proposal that we take an audit of the BAF artistes and see who has been paid so we add the responsible authorities here today.

Let’s check our accounts and confirm,” read one of the messages in a chat seen by Sunday Life.

According to council sources that spoke to Sunday Life on condition of anonymity, city fathers felt that they had been left high and dry by some prominent city arts practitioners, that did not honour agreements and had left the city saddled with debt.

“The people that we were working with abandoned the project.

They did not do anything to help organise a festival for this year and instead they are now actively involved with the planning of another similar festival in another town.

It’s a deep betrayal of trust and council is now shouldering blame while also having to service debt that was left in our hands,” the source said.

A prominent city artiste who spoke to Sunday Life anonymously said artistes were feeling disgruntled because there was a feeling that organisers had prioritised performers from outside the city.

In addition, city artistes were also angered by the blanket silence that followed numerous requests for dialogue with both organisers and BCC.

“According to what I have been told, all the artistes that came from outside the city were paid on time and if that’s true then it’s very painful.

The worst part is that they don’t even communicate and there wasn’t even a meeting to apologise and reassure artistes.

You also have to look at the rate of inflation if they intend to pay us in local currency instead of using foreign currency or the current exchange rate.

It’s all rather painful because how can we celebrate local artistes when even our own don’t want to honour local contracts,” the artiste said.