Artistes plead for sector reopening

Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent
BULAWAYO artistes met the Deputy Minister of Youth, Sport, Arts and Recreation Tino Machakaire on Saturday evening where they laid out their grievances calling for the opening of the sector.

The closed-door meeting was held at a local hotel and was also attended by the Ministry’s chief director Benson Dube and other officials.

Sandra Ndebele, Jeys Marabini, Cool Crooners, Mzoe 7, Novuyo Seagirl, Clement Magwaza, Madlela Skhobokhobo and the newly elected Bulawayo Musicians Association chairperson Thulani Sibanda attended the meeting.

After the three-hour meeting artistes said they were pleased to meet Deputy Minister Machakaire. “It’s rare for artistes to meet their ministers and personally I respect that this has happened. We had seen that happening in other countries and the fact that it also happened here is a great thing.

We were promised that in the future we shall have a better way of communication between the ministry and the artists. They also said they wanted to set up a studio for us,” said Mzoe 7. Madlela Skhokhobobo said they shared their concerns with the Deputy Minister Machakaire and it was a fruitful engagement.

“It was a good meeting. It’s always good for the people in power to come down and ask us about our concerns. We are happy that we have a listening Minister who comes down to hear our grievances. We told him everything that we wanted to tell him as we are the hardest hit industry and he understands us,” said Madlela.

Deputy Minister Machakaire said: “We came here to listen to the people who are our constituency as the ministry. They had genuine concerns of loss of income due to the Covid 19 pandemic and they offered some plans as to how we can reopen safely.

“We are a listening dispensation as espoused by the Second Republic. This is part of the engagement with stakeholders before our recommendations to Government.” Last week Deputy Minister Machakaire met artistes in Harare.