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Freshly Ground

Showbiz Reporter
Preparations for this year’s Harare International Festival of the Arts (Hifa) are going on well with organisers revealing that they will be bringing in South Africa’s Freshly Ground.

While this news has been met with enthusiasm by music lovers, the question is will Freshly Ground, a group that was deported, not once but twice in 2010 and 2014 by the Zimbabwe Immigration Department under unclear circumstances, be finally be allowed entry into the country?

Freshly Ground could have been deported because of their Chicken to Change song and puppet video that likely offended then President of the country Robert Mugabe.

At a press conference held in Harare earlier in the week, Hifa organisers were optimistic saying everything was in order for the group to perform in Zimbabwe adding that they were pinning their hopes on the new dispensation.

Also, earlier this year, Hifa, at their first press conference, revealed that they had partnered government in efforts to grow the country’s arts sector, something that could work to their advantage in their quest to bring Freshly Ground.

“We’re glad to reveal that from this year on, we’ll be working with a number of Government ministries. We’re going to be working very closely with the Ministry of Sport, Arts and Recreation; the Ministry of Home Affairs and Culture as well as the Department of Immigration,” Hifa board chairperson, Muchadeyi Masunda was quoted saying.

But, quizzed why the group had been barred from entering the country previously, the Zimbabwe Immigration Department in 2010 said they had cancelled the group’s visas and were not obliged to give reasons as to why they did so. And in 2018, the Immigration Department is still not clear as to their position on the group.

The assistant regional immigration officer in charge of compliance, Prosper Kambarami said:

“The success or failure of any application depends on its merit. The merit of an application can only be determined when that application has been submitted.”

However, if the band manages to come, arts enthusiasts in Zimbabwe will likely be the first to witness the group perform its latest offering, due for release next month, live. Hifa will take place from May 1 to 6 in the capital.

Freshly Grounds’ upcoming seventh album is titled Can’t Stop and serves as a reminder of how far the group has come.

“It’s our 16th year in music and we’ve had changes in the band, with members no longer playing instruments,” said Zolani Mahola, the lead singer of Freshly Ground told South Africa media.

“So, even though we haven’t been at the forefront and that (only) some of our albums were successful, we’re still doing what we love and that is what the album represents,” Mahola said. She said there was a new addition of a guitarist from the Democratic Republic of Congo and the absence of one of their former members, violinist Kyla-Rose Smith.

The last time the public saw Freshly Ground on their screens or online, was after the release of their single, Banana Republic last year, which also had a video released on the same day.