Artistes meet Parly Committee

Stephen Chifunyise Theatre Corridors
History was made in Harare on December 4 when, for the first time since independence in 1980, members of a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Education, Sport, Arts and Culture met artistes representing different artistic disciplines, cultural institutions and enterprises.

The meeting facilitated by Nhimbe Trust with the support of Culture Fund of Zimbabwe and the European Union Commission was designed as “Legislative Arts Advocacy Workshop”. All artistes who attended the event could not remember any opportunity since independence when members of the creative civil society in Zimbabwe meet a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on the Arts.

The meeting, which was attended by 13 members of the Portfolio Committee accompanied by three members of the committee’s secretariat, was structured in such a way that papers on specific areas of concerns were presented by artistes and the members of the portfolio committee.

In a paper entitled “Rhetoric to Action: The Role of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Sport, Arts and Culture on Realising Flexible Legislation on the Arts” read on his behalf by Buhera West MP Oliver Mandipaka, the chairman of the Portfolio Committee on Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Hurungwe West MP Temba Mliswa, indicated that the portfolio committee “is mandated to examine the expenditure, administration and the policy of the two ministries of Sport, Arts and Culture and the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education and other matters falling under its jurisdictions as may be resolved by Parliament.”

“The work of the committee is not restricted to Government. The committee may investigate any matter of public interest that falls within its area of responsibility,” he said.

The chairman of the Portfolio Committee said the committee will investigate :

Concerns over some pieces of legislation such as Censorship and Control Act, the National Gallery Act, the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe Act and the Broadcasting Services Act which are said “to bring some challenges and limitations to the operations of the arts and culture.

Operating environment for arts and culture that remains constrained by inadequate funding.

Lot of foreign content on public broadcasting stations at the expense of Zimbabwean art”.

Issues around culture being scattered over about eleven different ministries which makes it difficult to co-ordinate their activities.

Economic potential value of cultural products hardly researched and rarely featured in the Zimbabwe national economic statistics.
The chairman of the Portfolio Committee concluded by indicating that his committee had in the mean time considered the following as part of a way forward:

Dialogue between the creative industries and Government on policy.

Decentralisation of the creative industries to towns and city councils with budgets for the arts and culture being provided by the councils.
Domestication of all regional and international protocols and conventions.

Creation of arts academies to increase the workforce of arts and culture practitioners.

Artistes making a clear business case for business to invest their money in arts and culture enterprises.

Papers presented by artistes included Tendai Maziofa’s overview of the National Gallery Act; Larry Kwi-rirai’s review of the Censorship Act and Wadzanai Chiuriri’s analysis of the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe Act.

These reviews clearly showed the urgent for the amendments of these pieces of legislation.

Another presentation was Brian Penduka’s review of cultural governance in Zimbabwe that examine local laws, policies, and guidelines on culture and their adherence to international law and best practice.

In her presentation entitled “Discussion and Debate: Distilling the Similarities and Differences”, Tsitsi Dangarembga dealt with issues that impact of the viability of the creative economy in Zimbabwe and the need to appreciate features of that economy such as funding of the arts being distinct from funding of culture; the critical importance of arts education and the need for proper promotion and marketing of cultural goods and services.

The members of the Parliamentary Committee asked for a document with all the issues raised by the artistes for the committee’s consideration and investigation.

Issues that were put together included those raised in the four papers presented and those that were raised immediately as response to the paper by Honourable Mliswa.

These include the following issues: cultural diplomacy – Zimbabwean missions abroad and their inability or unwillingness to embrace visiting artists; the inaccessibility by artistes to community halls in cities and towns; the absence of a comprehensive national cultural policy; outdated legislation on arts and culture; poor Government funding of the National Arts Council and the National Gallery; poor media coverage of the arts and culture and bias towards covering sport; the practice of parastatals in arts and culture levying artists to raise money for their operations and not ploughing back that money into arts development; enormous challenges to the mobility of artists into Zimbabwe and the absence of arts education in school curriculum.

At the end of the meeting, when members of the Parliamentary Committee had left for Parliament, the artistes appointed Tsitsi Dangarembga, Stephen Chifunyise and Brian Penduka to assist the secretariat of Nhimbe Trust in putting together the document with issues raised for presentation to the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Sports, Arts and Culture.