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Rumbidzai Mbewe, Sunday Life Correspondent
BLUEZ Café, a vital cultural hub and community arts centre, a project of Nhimbe Trust in partnership with Youth Contact Centre (YCC) in Lobengula Street Bulawayo, will soon be relocating to an adjacent building, making way for Bulawayo City Council to start development on the long-planned eGodini Shopping Mall.
Phase one of the new eGodini development envisages a transport hub for both minibus taxis and long-distance buses and an improved facility for informal traders.
The proposed eGodini Shopping Mall has been in the planning phase for many years, but recently, Youth Contact Centre received notice from Bulawayo City Council to vacate the premises by the end of February 2018.
According to the marketing and public relations executive of Bluez Café, Penny Yon, Youth Contact Centre had invested in another property not 50 metres away and directly across Lobengula Street. She said Youth Contact Centre and Nhimbe Trust have envisaged building a “state of the art” cultural centre appropriate to Bulawayo’s status as “City of Culture”.
“ Plans have already been drawn up for a double-storey structure to accommodate offices, rehearsal/training rooms, an auditorium, 100 seat theatre, library, restaurant and roof deck for outdoor performances under the blue Bulawayo skies.”
Penny said the new Bluez Cafe premises required a substantial amount of renovation but will eventually be transformed into a new, permanent arts centre serving the cultural community.
“Nhimbe Trust believes that creative spaces are not confined to a particular physical location but the magic of the arts is where the sanctity of the human spirit resides and occurs in the most unlikely place,” she said.
The Executive Director of Nhimbe Trust, Josh Nyapimbi, said they were aware of the disruption and so they were ready to move when they had been notified by the City Council. He said they will try by all means not to have too many disruptions during this move.
“This disturbance was on the horizon and we were planning for it even prior to the launch of Bluez Café last Africa Day. We regret any inconvenience that this will cause to our valued stakeholders and we will try to ensure minimum disruption,” he said.
He said Babongile Sikhonjwa from Red Café pub and nightclub has offered to host some of the public live shows during the relocation period.
“We are very grateful to Babongile for allowing us to use his place for some of our events,” he said.
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