State assisted funeral for Cont

Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor

THE late veteran play wright and film maker, Cont Mhlanga will get a state assisted funeral, with the government also availing ZWL$2.5 million to the family.

Mhlanga (64) passed away on Monday morning at the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) were he was admitted for 10 days.

In a statement, Chief Secretary in the Office of the President, Dr Misheck Sibanda said the granting of the state assisted funeral was in recognition of Mhlanga’s great achievements as an internationally acclaimed playwright, filmmaker and creative director.

“President Mnangagwa, has granted State-assisted Funeral to the late National Arts Merit Awards (NAMA) legend, Continue-loving “Cont” Mdlala Mhlanga, who passed on at the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) after a short illness.

“This is in recognition of his great achievements as an internationally acclaimed playwright, filmmaker and creative director who came as a trail blazer in our country’s creative and cultural industries. Only recently the late departed had been appointed as a member of the National Team for the Creation of a Strategy for the Zimbabwe Film Sector,” said Dr Sibanda.

He said the arts industry was poorer after the death of arts doyen.

“On behalf of the Office of the President and Cabinet, and indeed on my behalf, I wish foremost, to express my deepest condolences to the Mhlanga family who have lost a beloved father and breadwinner, and to the cultural and creative arts community in general, who are the poorer with the demise of one of Zimbabwe’s most respected icons the arts sector has ever produced,” said Dr Sibanda.