Writers International Network Zimbabwe: COOPERATION KEY TO BUILDING A VIBRANT ARTS SECTOR

Report by Beaven Tapureta

Creative Voices for Policy Engagement (CVPE) leader, Aaron Chiundura Moyo, who is also a well-known writer and artist, speaking at a Gweru consultative workshop (Photo by CVPE)

A series of important consultative workshops that focus on issues currently affecting the arts and culture sector are under way, organized by Creative Voices for Policy Engagement (CVPE) with help from Culture Fund and the European Union.

The first workshop was held at the Theatre in the Park, Harare, on Friday, November 14, 2025 and a week later CVPE reached out to Gweru artists. On November 28, 2025, CVPE will move on to Mutare.

The workshops are being attended by artists and government representatives drawn from diverse fields and institutions. These stakeholders are examining the current status of the arts sector, also hashing out the opportunities and loopholes, and making realistic recommendations.

Chiundura Moyo, in his opening remarks at the Harare workshop, expressed his deep wish for a vibrant arts industry that improves creators’ lives and contributes immensely to the national economy.

The Harare workshop had the honoured presence of speakers from the arts sector and some government institutions, namely, the National Arts Council, Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe Broadcasting Cooperation, Curriculum Development Unit, Censorship Entertainment and Control Board, Parliamentary Portfolio Committee and Harare City Council.

Although artists’ frustrations with the state of affairs in their various fields were visible during this workshop emceed by Memory Chirere, the warm and friendly atmosphere accorded a free conversation and guaranteed sincere, un-judgemental responses.

Masimba Madondo, Consultus Publishing Services general manager, stood for the publishing industry and presented an informative perspective highlighting methods and processes involved in either textbook or trade book production, and the reality of the local book publishing business.

He said the textbook publishing business at least guarantees profit while trade books which include novels, poetry, and plays, are easily spiked in the editorial offices for their lack of business prospect. However, a publisher may accept a novel manuscript on the hope that it shall become a school set-book for literature study. Madondo said publishers always expect a trade book to break into the wider education market where it’s commonly believed high returns are garnered. As long as an educational book is factual, well-researched and well-structured, publishers will scramble for it, he added.

As for trade books, Madondo emphasized originality as important. Although he did not articulate how publishers gauge the originality of a creative work in this era of AI [artificial intelligence], he urged authors to polish their works before submitting.

“Do as much self-editing, proofreading as possible, there’s greater chance of being accepted,” he said.

Since cultural sensitivity and respecting the laws of the country are a responsibility of both author and publisher, Madondo said that publishers, upon receiving a manuscript, first look for the message the author is communicating.

“Controversial works are difficult to accept,” he said.

Later when asked how publishers categorize controversial works, he said usually these are works that may go against national security or carry obscene scenes or disrespect the faith or rights of others.

Aleck Kaposa, founder and director of Essential Book Publishing Company, said during question-and-answer session that at times publishers make the wrong judgement about a manuscript, meaning that a work that one publisher sees as ‘controversial’ may be viewed as a future best-seller by another.

“Manuscript rejection by a publisher is not the ultimate fate of a book. I urge writers to approach other publishers as well,” he said.

The argument over the definition of a ‘controversial work’ also spilled into the other presentations particularly by Censorship, Entertainment and Control Unit, the Curriculum Development Unit and Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe.

Meanwhile, some of the questions authors presented to Madondo included why the 10% royalty (set as an international standard) hasn’t changed since the 70s and how an author can be granted back full rights to his/her work in the event that a publisher fails. In response, Madondo said the best way to resolve legal matters is to liaise with the publishers.

Charles Mzemba, author of the well-known Shona novel Rovambira (1994, College Press), shared how recently he discovered the novel is being read on YouTube platforms without his permission, without him benefiting. He pleaded with the responsible stakeholders to think of effective strategies to curb copyright crimes in the digital space.

Madondo admitted the local book publishing industry needs to embrace a ‘new creative publishing eco-system’ that involves audio or e-books. “We’re looking at how to produce books in different formats. This also will call for reviewing certain contractual elements such as author’s remuneration, copyright and distribution strategies. We did not consider some of the things coming up today such as AI,” he said.

The Curriculum Development Unit (CDU) is one of government institutions that have a ‘gate-keeping’ role somewhere in the book value chain.

Dr A P Makanda, CDU director, unveiled guideposts authors and illustrators should heed when they write for school-based readership or when they want to engage government schools in certain arts projects to ensure the school time-table is not disturbed. He said artists are not the only ones working with schools but there are other organizations from different fields such as sports.

Dr Makanda said artists or organizations engaging schools without permission from the Ministry have gone to the extent of manipulating schools to pay for their activities at this time when government is making efforts to make education inexpensive for Zimbabweans.

The CDU, when approving textbooks or set books for use in schools, looks for the same qualities that a publisher looks for in a manuscript - qualities such as appropriate language, respect for other people’s religious faiths and the book’s cultural value since writers are seen also as cultural workers. Dr Makanda’s advice to ‘unfunded’ self-published writers was that the CDU neither financially supports a selected book’s printing cost or help in its marketing.

Reflecting back on the copyright issue raised in previous sessions, he said the issue is so delicate it needs to be handled with care as it may endanger instead of protecting creativity. For instance, if the Ministry finds it burdensome to work with copyrighted works, the CDU would have no choice but to revive its own printing press and commission its own writers, and own the copyrights, thus dealing a death blow to local writers and publishers.

Dr Makanda, just as the Censorship, Entertainment and Control Unit presenter, decried the spread of skits or dramas inappropriate for children.

“Let’s teach our children our culture using age-appropriate visual material, in books, dramas, et cetera,” he said.

Although the CDU is committed to instilling positive cultural values and life skills in Zimbabwean school children, a participant doubted how practical was this vision in an environment where children think they go to school ‘to pass examinations’ and when at home they are overfed with foreign culture through other media.

Dr Makanda said writers and artists are the ones who should safeguard culture but that responsibility is now forgotten because of the borrowed thinking that ‘obscenity sells’. His words were justified in a presentation made by the Censorship, Entertainment and Control Unit representative who blamed the irresponsible, backdoor studios producing such art.

Mrs M Ngwandima, an official from the Unit, said that these days there’s a lot of immoral music out there in the public arena. While the Unit licenses recording studios, there are illegal backyard studios producing such music. The Unit is working with the police to bring to book these unregistered studios.

How her organization is handling social media material also came under spotlight. Ngwandima said the 1967 Act is too old and needs amendment if censorship is to properly function in a technology-driven society. She notified artists that her team is set to travel to other countries like South Africa and China to learn how they have enacted new laws that cater for digital artistic expressions.

In other countries, the situation has changed as noticed by Daves Guzha who said, “Other progressive countries no longer have a censorship board, they actually now have a certification board that helps deal with social media also.”

On why the Censorship Board is now called a Unit, Ngwandima said the Board was disbanded in 2018 and replaced by the existing Unit which still have the same board powers and responsibilities such as regulation and controlling of all forms of entertainment (music, film/theatre, publications and others). Yet, as it became known, the Unit’s administrative capacity is limited, hence the artists’ doubt in its judgements of artistic works. There are plans to bring back the board structure, she said.

Although she explained in detail the procedures of obtaining any of the four conditional licenses/certificates and their durations, the certificate of rejection came under spotlight.

This certificate, given to unsuccessful applicants for various reasons, stimulated an open conversation about whether the censorship is meant to promote or stifle freedom of artistic expression.

Ngwandima said an artist still has a right to appeal to the Minister in the event that he/she feels unhappy with a rejection report from the Censorship unit.

Professor Ruby Magosvongwe, representing Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe couldn’t let go of this serious topic about loss of moral control in most artistic creations that the Zimbabwean audience is now being exposed to.

She said artists, if they familiarize with the law of Zimbabwe, they would be wary of the limitations that come with their right to certain freedoms like the freedom of artistic expression.

BAZ duties, she said, include licensing broadcasters, creating platforms for local content, monitoring legal compliance and respect for national values. Not only does BAZ exist for radio and television, but also covers digital broadcasters examples of which Prof Magosvongwe said are podcasts, YouTube channels, social media platforms, TikTok, Whatsapp, and blogs.

Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation television production manager, Skha Masunda, spoke on behalf of Dr C Munganasa. She presented what seasoned film practitioner Stephen Chigorimbo termed ‘music to the ears’. Indeed, her presentation, a dialogue with workshop participants throughout, highlighted the lack of fresh, unique television programme concepts from local artists.

She said ZBCTV is now tired of running the same themes over and over. Viewers are expecting new things. Now that funds for commissioning artists are available at ZBCTV, she said the national broadcaster is looking for concepts that make them sit up and give thumps up for uniqueness.

The copyright issue was brought to light by A Rimau, CEO of Reproduction Rights Organization of Zimbabwe. Rimau shed light on how authors can benefit from registering with collective management organizations or CMOs which act as intermediaries between creators and users of artistic works. Generally, he said CMOs receive authorizations from copyright holders, license the use of their works and collect royalties which are then channeled back to the copyright holder.

Local authors had lost hope in the role of RROZ as book piracy is blossoming almost like it’s legal in the country. Zimbabwean writers and publishers have for a long time been struggling to eliminate this evil practice but to no avail. ZimCopy, a registered local collective management organization which in the past brought some hope to copyright holders in the text and image field, now seems to have become inactive. How timely then the presence of Reprographic Rights Organization of Zimbabwe was at the workshop to settle down some of the writers’ unanswered questions!

Rimau promised that RROZ is committed to dealing with this unauthorized reproduction of copyrighted works.

He said that these street vendors of photocopied books are simply a ‘front’ that the real criminals operating backstage use. Some of the book pirates are dishonest printers whom writers engage, printers who, after printing especially textbooks, they reproduce the original copies to sell them directly to customers through secret means at very cheap prices.

While RROZ, in partnership with the Zimbabwe Republic Police, has been empowered to arrest copyright law-breakers and represent authors’ rights in court, the onus is on publishers and authors to rightfully register their works.

The current law (the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act/ Chapter 26: 05) is a hurdle in itself, like the Censorship, Entertainment Control Act; it is yet to catch up with the new digital environment. For example, downloading textbooks in phones is a crime that’s become fun nowadays. Rimau advised theatre organizations to sign a contract with the publisher or ask for permission from the author when conducting ‘theatre for education’ programs that involve adapting novels into theatre.

Tinashe Chirengendu from the Harare City Council outlined how artists can work together with different council departments, for instance when arts and culture organizations want to use a council-owned community hall, street or recreational park spaces. These public spaces can be hired at a fee.

He said HCC is committed to promoting the arts and respects values such as social cohesion and equity through fair use of the streets by both the public and artists.

Giving an example of some streets in Harare CBD which have turned into vending sites and spaces for all sorts of activities, Chirengendu said this is in contrast with the true purpose of a street.

Artists too contribute to the positive marketing of the city, hence they said they deserve acknowledgement through affordable licenses when they engage the City Council.

Chirengendu advised the arts sector that apart from participating in annual council budget consultative meetings, an official letter or proposal for review of permit charges or other grievances is also the best way to communicate with the Town Clerk who understands how to handle these issues.

Various participants suggested that there’s need for city planners to consider turning certain neglected public spaces into arts centers or cultural villages, improvement of communication between artists and the City Council budget meetings, renovation of existing community halls, credible representation in council, and the creation of a city council arts fund.

An overview of how parliament relates with the arts and culture industry was given by Benson Ngwandingwa of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee. His paper, 'Bridging the Gap Between Parliament and the Creative Sector’ added substance to the fact that local artists need not dismiss government institutions in their professional affairs.

In addition to advocating for funding of the arts from the national budget, Ngwandingwa said the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee contributes to legislation and runs a number of activities that benefit artists; for instance, assisting in the petition writing and process when there’s a request to Parliament to take action on a particular matter.. As the Committee is dedicated to building a well-informed arts and culture sector, he invited stakeholders to think of PPC as an information resource center where they can access policy documents and others.

Like the other presenters, Ngwandingwa also proposed the strengthening of intellectual property rights in the digital era through updating or modernizing current obsolete laws.

He said creating a supportive, not restrictive collective management system to ensure fair remuneration for artists and incentivizing the private sector to invest into the arts will help achieve the collective vision for the creative sector.

The National Arts Council, as one of constitutional government bodies that deal with the arts industry at a close range, was represented by Tafara T Vuta.

Vuta said so far NAC has had its milestones such as the launch of Zimbabwe Music and Film Strategies five years ago. In addition to the said achievements, NAC has also made strides in policy development, with the National Arts and Culture Heritage Policy and the National Cultural and Creative Industry Strategy being on top of the list, the later having been launched in 2020 and runs until 2030. He said the major goal of these documents, that is, to position the creative sector as a viable industry with social and economic impact, can only be achieved if artists cooperate in the implementation process.

During an interactive session, Daves Guzha raised the question why NAC operate as a regulatory body that police the sector when in fact its major role should be ‘to provide platforms and resources for artists’. This misunderstanding he said is the source of some of the artists’ challenges, for example, when NAC charges expensive registration fees.

“NAC doesn’t have to police us but we must work together for the growth of the sector,” said Guzha.

A recommendation was made for NAC, as well as for BAZ, to establish an effective annual commissioning program that will cut down problems in the sector.

Vuta said NAC is currently lobbying government to review the registration fees.

After all has been said, it is everyone’s hope that all ideas to be gathered from all the workshops will provide basis for advancing Zimbabwean artistic talent, culture and restore dignity in this significant sector.

Some Scenes from the Harare and Gweru workshops

(All images by CVPE)