An economy of piracy is beyond informal

recording companies had built franchise models to help boost their music sales judging by the number of DVDs that were being sold along the street.
Little did he know that these were pirate DVD copies of the tireless efforts of the sons and daughters of the soil with no benefit accruing to musicians.

Zimbabwe is now leading the pack at world stage in the trading of pirated music, movies, gospel sermons, and other copyright protected works.
With grinding poverty in most parts of the country, this has left the majority believing it to be an honest source of income when, in fact, they are building an illegal economy not a grey economy or underground economy as it is generally perceived.

The Government has to appreciate that leaving such an activity to continue unchecked will have more serious consequences since it will just continue building havens which will harbour these social delinquencies.
The municipalities of all the major cities have been employing unconventional tactics in order to deal with the culture and to the detriment of the society, this has seen more and more running battles.
The irony of the whole matter is those mothers who will be involved in selling vegetables in the pavements have been regular targets of these local authorities’ police more than the pirated DVD vendors.

Hollywood in California, Bollywood in New Delhi and Nollywood of Abuja exist because of sound policies by the governments of those countries that were aimed at ensuring that arts and culture thrive.
This has seen the benefits transcending beyond the artistes’ periphery to also amass substantive revenue for the fiscus through tax collections.
It is also true that singing or acting in Zimbabwe will take a lifetime to get the professional status it receives in other countries.

This reminds one of the biblical Esau and Jacob who were brothers, given Esau’s hunting skills, no one could imagine that he will serve his young brother Jacob.
Jacob spent most of his time at home but at the end of the day had all the game meat.
Esau went to the extent of trading his birthright for stew regardless of his hunting skills.

This is synonymous with our case here in Zimbabwe where musicians end up begging after years of effort and hard work churning out albums which are in turn pirated with the promoters of this practice playing the role of Esau without any iota of regret.
Government has to effect the intellectual property rights and nip the whole culture in the bud.

If the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act is to create such calibre of entrepreneurs as the ones we are witnessing today, then Minister Saviour Kasukuwere has his work cut out for him.
There has been an increase in construction in major parts of the Central Business District, the worrying trend is that the tenants who will occupy would be the same culprits who will purchase a desktop computer in order to “burn” the efforts of talented sons and daughters of the soil.

The reason why Jay-Z, Robert Sylvester Kelly, Mariah Carey, Chuck Norris, Chris Rock and Justin Bieber are swarmed by fans in the streets of Hollywood is due to their talent.
Leonard Zhakata, the Charambas and Munyaradzi Munodawafa – the young blind man who hails from Masvingo – hardly get their deserved iconic status because they are not getting their net worth because of piracy.

Who could imagine that one of the most celebrated artistes to come out of Jairos Jiri Band, Paul Matavire, died a pauperised “celebrity” inspite of the entertainment he brought about every time he graced our small screens during family time.
When Michael Jackson passed on, condolence messages were extended even from heads of state across the world. He made millions of dollars posthumously through his brand.

We have created a pirate economy, which compares favourably with the piracy activities of the Somalis who had been known for holding sailors in captivity in demand for compensation.
It is such a fictitious economy, which continues dragging the performance of the social economy.
When a former Maungwe band leader who had been famed for his double belt and shiny shirts, Leonard Zhakata learnt of the rampant selling of his album before official release, he chose to process and release his latest works hurriedly.

When the Chicago-based R & B performer R. Kelly was about to release his Loveland album at the turn of the millennium it went the Zhakata route and he was left with no choice but to suspend the release of the project.
Those who were implicated in the scandal could not be seen walking scot-free as they belonged in prison.
The likes of Pastor Chiweshe of the AFM Assembly suffered the same fate, there are more pirated versions of his sermons on the streets than the original works.

The concept of “dollar for two” shifted from biscuits to pirated discs, these “pirate entrepreneurs” remain remorseless and have a strong belief it is the economy to blame not their deeds, remember the economy is a result not a function.
The million-dollar question is: Who is to foot the costs involved in the recordings of such preaching sermons when almost 90 percent of the message is outside the formal channels?

I believe as consumers, we carry the cost through the sacrifice of our tithes and offerings in our churches, we are equally to blame for we had been condoning such ill-fated activities.
This is a passionate call to the powers that be, that for how long shall this great nation remain exposed to photocopies of music, books, sport jerseys, culture, political philosophy and mindset.

If authorities are failing to implement a direct and decisive mechanism to deal with piracy, how can we entrust them to implement the Medium Term Plan to its letter and spirit?
We have soccer teams by the name Gunners, La Liga, Barca and a certain lower division club wears a Chelsea FC soccer jersey. All these are indicators of an inefficient innovation and invention spirit, which will not carry the day for this beautiful nation.

As a nation, we cannot afford to solve our economic problems when we are operating at the same level we have created them, at the worst of Zimbabwe’s economy in 2008, there were fewer merchants of pirated music than we see today.

After independence, there were more vernacular names for soccer teams such as Tanganda, Amazulu, Chapungu, Shabanie and they are gradually but surely becoming cousins of Espanyol names.
Do these soccer clubs ever have a vision to see themselves competing with their namesakes or they have just relegated themselves to playing second fiddle.

Surely, if they were to compete at international level, a liturgy of litigation will be the order of the day.
It has to be noted that no amount of financing for this pirate economy will create employment for the nation, no amount of significant tax revenue will be collected from such an “elusive-cum-invisible” economy.

The dealers in this business do not believe in saving or investing the income they derive regardless of its amount.
They do not want to be in the recording studios but want to supply the output.
You do not come across them in farms but they specialise in agricultural products, they have never been to school but they sell textbooks with all the luring languages, which confuses even the literate.

These are the “pirates” who are holding the nation at ransom, they are actually eroding the Gross Domestic Product.
Let the good times roll let us revert back to original products.

Thank You and God bless you.