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Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent
COMEDY fanatics can now buy copies of the Bulawayo Show – a popular cartoon comedy strip online as producers strive to make the show available to those outside Zimbabwe.

To download copies of the comedy strips – which are similar to South Africa’s Izikhokho, people will have to log onto the Bulawayo Show website www.thebyoshow.tv and pay $5 for each clip. New clips will be made available weekly.

Executive producer of the show, Zenzele Ndebele, said they realised they could make more money from selling memorabilia and video clips online, than having to rely on physical sales.

“We decided to open an online shop so as to cater for those in the diaspora as they’ve been requesting that we send copies to them,” Ndebele said.

Asked how they would send memorabilia overseas, Ndebele said they were in the process of identifying online merchandising shops in the diaspora which would assist them to print their designs on t-shirts, mugs and caps.

“We’re still trying to identify online shops in areas such as the UK, US, Australia and Canada to partner with so they design our merchandise instead of us having to send them abroad, which may be more costly.

“Once we reach agreements with the companies, we’ll give them our Bulawayo Show logos so they process the merchandise once there are orders. After that, they’ll deliver the orders to people in their respective countries,” Ndebele said.

Turning to Zimbabweans back home, Ndebele said they were working frantically to secure a deal with a local mobile phone service provider which will see locals using their mobile money facilities to purchase the video clips and merchandise, especially considering that credit cards are not widely used in Zimbabwe.

“We’re in talks with a mobile company to use their mobile money facilities for Zimbabweans to pay for merchandise online.

“Some of our clients told us they wanted to purchase copies of the DVDs online but had no credit cards hence our decision to partner with a telecommunications company as most people use mobile money facilities,” Ndebele said.

He added that they wanted to set up mobile shops that would move around Bulawayo, selling merchandise to people.

The latest Bulawayo Show Sigwadi Mampara Varera Pazhe tackles issues to do with tribalism and struggles artistes face in the industry.

“In one of the new video clips, the famous characters, Rato and Sox compose a song which people from their locality love.

“To promote the song, they look for sponsorship from companies, but hit a brick wall as most of them tell them that they’ve to wait for approval from their head offices in Harare,” he said.

By end of day yesterday, Sigwadi Mampara: Varera Pazhe which was uploaded on the Bulawayo Show Facebook page on Wednesday, had over 4,000 views.

Two DVDs have been released so far, with producers promising more works this year.

“The response so far has been overwhelming, especially from those in the diaspora.

“We’ll continue producing more quality clips and hope people will continue supporting us as we try to share the Bulawayo story with them,” Ndebele said.