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Minister Andrew Langa

Cont Mhlanga
IN THE past two years, three drafts of the proposed Culture, Arts and Heritage Policy of Zimbabwe have been dropped on our desks, the captains of these sectors. It has become clear to us all who work in the culture, arts and heritage sectors of the economy that the drafters, whoever they are, have no clue what is required of a national culture, arts and heritage policy.

Given the three drafts we have seen before us, I can only equate their efforts to a drugged artist who is making an effort to sketch a beautiful countryside landscape on the thickest of a misty day! Baphandlwe yinkungu nje.

Honourable Andrew Langa, the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture whose ministry, we are informed, is responsible for leading the drafting of this national policy, is content with both the process and the nonsense that is coming out of the process and continues to keep inviting us to review these misguided, shallow drafts.

To say the least, how can a serious policy use words such as “lobby” and expect Cabinet to sign that kind of policy and us to agree with it? Cabinet is government and who is government expected to lobby to do what? So this policy is guiding government to lobby itself or government departments, ministries and agencies to lobby each other! What crap is this?

At the Arts Indaba organised by the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe in 2012 the first draft policy was presented to those in attendance for review for the first time after a five-year wait. Everyone present was shocked by what was presented before the captains of the sectors.

The document, beautiful as it was, did not constitute a policy. The drafters were not at the meeting, were the officials from the ministry leading the process.

An official from the National Arts Council presented the draft and she kept on saying she did not know anything about the contents of the draft that was given to her that morning to present. Pages and pages of information and input were submitted to the presenter by all present to pass on to the mysterious drafters and their ministry handlers in an effort to strengthen what was before the Indaba.

This year in March captains of our sector based in Harare were invited by the ministry to the National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe to review the latest of the draft policy. It turned out to be a 55 page document that contains nothing from the previous document draft presented in Masvingo and nothing of the inputs from the Masvingo Arts Indaba contributions. In short the whole policy draft presented in Masvingo was thrown into the rubbish bin because it was rubbish and was good for the rubbish bin, all of it so the drafters had found out.

This week captains of our sectors in Bulawayo have been invited to the National Art Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo to review the policy draft document by the ministry. The first thing that struck me was that the title of the policy document had changed. A closer look at the document surprised me even more as the 55 page document presented in Harare 13 days ago had been reduced to 21 pages! I decided to dig into it word for word and realised that it was no longer the same document that was presented in Harare a fortnight ago for review.

This one was a new document meaning that the drafters have thrown the one they presented in Harare in the rubbish bin as well because they had realised again that they had moved from presenting rubbish at the Masvingo draft to presenting nonsense at the Harare draft.

So the drafters and their handlers from the ministry decided to produce and present a different one in Bulawayo that those in Harare do not know a thing about. Two drafts in the rubbish bin; now what next from the review in Bulawayo this week?

I have had a chance to see all the three drafts and I can tell you that the draft practitioners have been invited to review this week is crap. It is no policy document in any meaning of the word. All key elements of a culture, arts and heritage policy are missing from this document. Ten pages of the document are definitions of words and the last eleven pages is a list of very shallow intentions. I am convinced it will join the other two in the rubbish bin when the ministry moves to the next venue for its review.

Judging by the three drafts, it is clear that the drafters have no clue of what needs to go into a culture, arts and heritage policy. It is also clear that they have no clue and knowledge of the culture, arts and heritage sector of Zimbabwe they aim to draft a policy for. It is also clear that they are using a flawed approach and process in going about drafting this policy. The result is that they will come up with an embarrassing policy document to present to Cabinet, a document that will not even be of any use to the culture, arts and heritage sectors of the country.

The drafters have thus far seriously exposed themselves while the leading ministry’s directors, the permanent secretary and the two honourable ministers are left with egg on their faces.

The Hon Minister Langa should swiftly put a hold on these drafters and their handlers in his ministry and go back to the drawing board starting by appointing knowledgeable people in his ministry to set up and manage the whole process. It is clear from the three deliverables of the policy drafts that have changed content at every review venue that whoever is doing that role within his ministry has no knowledge of the culture, arts and heritage industries of the country and what is expected of a policy to address this sector. Yinkungu nje.

Once the frontline team has been set within the ministry, this will be followed on by developing a plan of what information is required from whom and then the process of collecting the required information. Once the information is available to the ministry the minister appoints a qualified and knowledgeable team of policy drafters. Once the first policy draft is out as these three have been, it is discussed ONLY by implementing stakeholders who are listed in the policy document for adjustments.

It is then moved upwards and not downwards towards its final destination the Cabinet. It is only after it has been signed by Cabinet that it shall find its way downwards via all implementing stakeholders listed on the policy document.

There are serious, dangerous issues already emerging from the Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture that will effectively push the culture, arts and heritage sectors to nowhere. Eventually all this will fall on the door-step of the Honourable Minister Andrew Langa.

Cont Mhlanga is the director of Amakhosi Theatre Productions