Zimbabwe Musicians Union appoints Provincial Committee Members

Edith Weutonga at Unplugged Zimbabwe PIC: 3-mob.com

The Zimbabwe Musicians Union (ZIMU) has unveiled the names of provincial committee members in four provinces as part of the organisation’s efforts to promote, defend and look out for the welfare of its members.

The members were chosen through a voting process following workshops held in Bulawayo (Bulawayo Province), Gweru (Midlands Province), Mutare (Manicaland) and Masvingo (Masvingo Province) since the beginning of the year. The committee members were chosen with support from local musicians in each province and help from ZIMU management including its president Edith Katiji and women’s desk chairperson Chioneso Rutsito.

“The setting up of provincial committees allows for decentralised governance of local musical activities and will benefit our members in the provinces more,” Katiji said. “The committees will determine how they run to address the challenges faced by our members in those communities. We are excited to see this roll out and our next step will be to focus on capacitating our committees so they can deliver on their duties well. We are in exciting times at ZIMU.”

In addition, other members were selected in Mashonaland Central and Matabeleland South provinces, where ZIMU also held workshops. Due to logistical challenges among the appointed members, positions were not yet filled. There will be an additional workshop in Chitungwiza on a yet-to-be-announced date as part of the 2023 calendar. Further workshops will be held in the remaining provinces next year, with dates to be announced soon.

National Arts Council of Zimbabwe communication and marketing manager Rodney Ruwende said: “The National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) was pleased to assist the Zimbabwe Musicians Union (ZIMU), a registered Arts Organization, in the rollout of its project targeting grassroots practitioners in the country’s provinces. The programme dovetails with the NACZ thrust of fostering professionalisation, digitisation and industrialization of the Cultural and Creative Sector (CCS) in Zimbabwe.”

In response to their appointments, one of the newly appointed members in the Midlands province secretary, Khulekani Moyo said: “I am very excited with the existence of ZIMU in the Midlands Chapter. At least we now have a voice that will stand for the artists. Artists had for long suffered from stigmatisation and isolation. At so many times they have been oppressed because of poor protection and vulnerability in the industry. It is time now that ZIMU will handle artists’ warfare We thank our president ‘mhamha bass’ for reviving the union in the province and in the entire country at large. Already we have started to be engaged in mass artist recruitment as our President told us to do.”

The provincial committee members are: