Dear Mr President

Dear Mr President
Your Excellency, The President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, Comrade Robert Gabriel Mugabe, greetings.

My cry is about the state of affairs in the arts industry because arts have always been considered a�?just entertainmenta�?.

But hope was revived when in 2013 Your Excellency, you detached us from education and married us with sport, we rejoiced at the new home and hoped that the new Ministry of Sport, Art and Culture was the answer to our problems.

You tasked the then minister Andrew Langa with taking us to the promised land. Ask anyone what Langaa��s arts achievement were? They will tell you the closest he came to making any significant impact was making arts legend Cont Mhlanga cry. To be honest when you fired him, we had renewed hope.

Fast forward to 2015, you appointed Abednico Ncube to take over those reins. In fact at first announcement we rejoiced that we had gotten Makhosini Hlongwane as our minister. Only to realise later that arts had been dropped from sport and we were now part of the Ministry of Rural Development, Preservation and Promotion of Culture and Heritage.

Please do not get me wrong Mr President. All these men are fine gentlemen and politicians but I will have you know we are still to meet Abednico Ncube as creatives in the industry. What are his plans for the arts? His vision? Is it in line with ours? How do we line with his? Is there a future for the arts?

I came to one conclusion Your Excellency. We are still considered entertainment in this country and not a business.

One thing for sure is you have given the arts a chance, sadly to those with no interests whatsoever. We can create our own Hollywood sir, we have plans for such, our music can grow and we can contribute significantly to the countrya��s GDP.

But all this needs people with that vision. We are artistes and we love our art, please let us lead the way. How do we explain the National Arts Council not having a board all these years? Why are we not taking advantage of cultural agreements that the country has with other nations and instead of National Arts Council funding such, we get charged for trying to collaborate?

Our current minister is so absent without leave and last week we had Makhosini Hlongwane open a cultural exhibition in Bulawayo. This is the same Makhosini who fought that National Sports Stadium should not be hijacked for Pastor Chris at the expense of local football. Who would not want such a minister?

We need people with the arts at heart in leadership positions. A separate ministry of Arts and Culture would do sir.
Yours with the arts at heart. Loving son of the soil.

Nkululeko Nkala