BULAWAYO artistes on Thursday ambushed Sport, Arts and Culture minister Andrew Langa during the 2014 Zone VI Youth Games all-stakeholders meeting held at the Large City hall and bombarded him with questions concerning their welfare.
DIVINE DUBE Own Correspondent
Despite the fact that the meeting was primarily for sports people, artistes came in full force outnumbering the targeted group in a bid to lobby the minister to address their plight.
Artistes from the southern region of the country have in the past decried marginalisation claiming it stunted the region’s arts industry. They claim their counterparts in the northern side of the country enjoy recognition at their expense.
In recent months, enraged artistes took Information and Broadcast Services minister Jonathan Moyo to task demanding he end the Zimbabwe Broadcast Corporation’s partiality in covering artistes. They claimed Harare artistes got more airplay than them although their productions were better.
The Insiza legislator might face a herculean task in addressing the plight of the artistes whose problems stem from allegations of marginalisation.
“Minister, so what is going to happen to us (Bulawayo artistes) since we are sidelined to pave way for Harare artistes?
“Are we going to get a chance to participate during the Youth games,” Sarah Mpofu, who is Zimbabwe Actors Equity president, said amid applause from the audience during a question-and-answer session at the Large City Hall on Thursday.
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“We know that each time there is a big function, Harare artistes are contracted ahead of us,” the decorated artiste quipped. But Langa chose to be diplomatic: “We must not forget other artistes from Zimbabwe but as I have said earlier, the Youth Games are going to benefit everyone in Bulawayo,” he said.
Langa who spent the entire question-and-answer session shielding a volley of questions coming from emotional artistes conceded that his ministry was “a new baby” which needed enough time to fit into the system.
The arts, sport and culture were previously under the Education ministry, but the separation of the two ministries by President Mugabe a few months ago gave the suppressed arts industry a lifeline. Education has been getting approximately 75% of the budget allocated to the ministry at the expense of arts, sport and culture, a development long seen as a setback in the development of the latter.
In an apparent bid to deflect the question of marginalisation which artistes seemed to push for the minister’s consideration, he (Langa) diverted the talk and urged artistes to take arts as business not only as entertainment.
“When business persons were asked to stand up during introductions you did not stand up because you don’t view yourselves as business persons,” he said.
“You must not view yourselves only as entertainers, but as business persons,” the minister advised.
Langa also urged artistes to invest proceeds from their work during the prime of their careers. “You must invest when you are still at your prime because when you reach 40 your performance also drops.
“Most artistes and even sports stars do not invest. If you walk into their houses years later, you will forget that they were once stars. There will be virtually nothing to show in their houses,” Langa said.
Comparing artistes from the two major cities — Bulawayo and Harare, the minister said “all artistes must have the same value”.
