Online Reporter
Bruce Ndlovu, Zimpapers Writer
WHILE he had successfully carved out a reputation as a vocal member of the august House, Nkulumane Member of Parliament Desire Moyo was, first and foremost, a man whose undying love for the arts defined the vast majority of his life, according to grieving colleagues and friends. Widely known by his stage moniker, Desire Moyoxide, Moyo tragically passed away after the vehicle he was travelling in was involved in a fatal accident in the early hours of Friday morning.
As if he had somehow forecast the tragedy that awaited him, Moyoxide had recently made a significant return to his first love, theatre — the very platform that initially catapulted him to prominence. He rolled back the years by taking on a role in Zwelethu, a collaborative production by Siyaya Arts and Nasa Theatre, once again proving his mettle at the age of 46. For some, it was an odd sight to see one of the country’s lawmakers on stage, but for those who had known Moyoxide since his youth, this was his natural habitat. He had always insisted that the arts were his one true love.
Born with an insatiable appetite for the stage, Moyoxide juggled poetry and drama with aplomb from an early age, and had always firmly maintained that he could never choose between the two disciplines.
“I cannot choose between myself and my shadow,” he famously said in an interview two years ago. “The two go together. Poetry is a part of drama, and I think I am at my best as a director and a writer. So I have never felt any conflict between poetry and drama. They are the same thing to me and I can do them in parallel to each other,” he said.
Moyoxide’s long-time friend, Madlela Sikhobokhobo, recounted the parliamentarian’s profound influence on his own career path. Moyoxide, who started as a public speaker before branching into poetry, nurtured Sikhobokhobo’s love for the stage when they were schoolboys together at Manama High School.
“Desire was like a brother to me because we literally grew up together. We met when we were in Form 1 at Manama. I arrived during the second term of that school year because I transferred from Zezane. That was in 1993. When I arrived, they were making a drama production, and I took an immediate interest in it. I decided that this was something that I wanted to be a part of and joined the cast,” he recalled.
Sikhobokhobo noted that leadership had come naturally to Moyoxide, who took it upon himself to guide other aspiring thespians during their school days.
“He taught me a lot in terms of acting because he already had a lot of knowledge at the time. I was in the dark because I was a boy from the rural areas, and he was someone who had grown up in the big city. When he was writing the script for his first-ever play, I was sitting right next to him. We had absconded from church service, which was a requirement because Manama is a Lutheran school. I did not know a single thing about theatre at that time, and he was handholding me through the process,” he said.
Sikhobokhobo added that Moyoxide, who later became the driving force behind Victory Siyanqoba and Eziko Theatre Lab — two organisations he founded in 2008 and 2009, respectively — maintained an undying love for the arts, even while dabbling in other fields and disciplines over the years.
“After our O-levels, I went to Zezane, and he stayed at Manama. After A-levels, we linked up again and started Missing Pieces Productions and continued our theatre dreams. We continued until the time came for me to go to SA. That is why I say he was like a brother to me. Of course, in life, as you grow older, you take different paths as your interests diverge, but he was a brother to me right until the end,” he said.
Arts practitioner and administrator Nkululeko Nkala commented that although his legislative duties consumed much of his time in recent years, Moyoxide still faithfully attended most of the arts events in the city.
“This is a hard loss to take, and as the arts have really lost a person that we can consider a heartbeat of the sector. When we talk about people who truly embodied love for the arts, we have to mention Moyo because he was one person who barely missed any event. If you looked into the faces of any audience, on any given day, you knew you would find him there,” he said.
Nkala pointed to Moyoxide’s recent return to the stage as proof of his passion.
“To showcase his undying love for the arts, he was recently on stage as part of the 50 dates at the theatre initiative. It shows the passion that he had for the arts, and it was quite humbling to see one of the country’s lawmakers on stage. This is a huge, huge loss for the arts because we have lost one of our biggest voices,” he said.
Praise poet Mntakagogo added that Moyoxide served as a leading light for young wordsmiths in the city.
“He was someone who shaped a lot of us and we would probably not be doing this if it wasn’t for him. He was an icon and the effect that he had on most of us should be respected,” he said.
