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Mthabisi Tshuma, Showbiz Correspondent
Female artistes are out to claim their spot in the arts industry through an initiative dubbed Divas in Action Zimbabwe.

A brainchild of musician, mentor, motivational speaker, fashion designer, model and dancer Sarah Dhliwayo Nkala aka Sarah Dee, the initiative is aimed at putting female artistes on the spotlight.

In the past, Divas in Action Zimbabwe has rolled out clean-up campaigns in Harare, Gweru and Mutare. On Saturday, the clean-up campaign will be conducted in Bulawayo with the likes of Helen Nyati, Novuyo Seagirl, Qeqe, Racheal Ncube, Nonhlanhla Sibanda, Pamela Magariro, Patience Mbanga, Nomvula Dube, Jennifer Chiveya, Jacqueline Arifandika and Khetiwe Mathuthu set to participate.

Sarah Dee said the programme is part of their strategy of promoting female artistes’ brands.

“We’ve been doing these clean-up campaigns for over two years. As women, we’re known for cleanliness and cleanliness is close to Godliness thus before doing anything else, we need to make sure we do our part in terms of cleaning.

“The areas we’ll focus on in Bulawayo include Humi Park, Lobengula Street, 5th and 6th Avenue where litter has become the order of the day,” said the Bulawayo-bred artiste. Turning to the organisation, Sarah Dee said it was formed in 2016 and aims at promoting female artistes countrywide.

“Divas in Action Zimbabwe is a group of female artistes, both established and up-and-coming. We came up with this initiative after we realised how we, as females are so vulnerable. We’ve been having challenges with people taking advantage of female artistes and we want that to stop.

“Back in the day, we didn’t have a voice but now, we want to speak up and take our art as a business. We don’t have to remain poor as artistes,” said Sarah Dee.

She said the initiative also seeks to give a breakthrough platform to female artistes nationwide, regardless of one’s location.

“The motto for Divas in Action Zimbabwe is ‘I am a brand, you are a brand, let’s work together, together we can’. The motivation behind the vision is less talk and more action. In that light, as female artistes, we need to be doing a lot of action.

“We need to work on doing away with negative things which have been happening to our female artistes. For example, when one goes for a business meeting, it can easily be turned into a date or a proposal. We need to stop that, people need to stop that, especially men, they need to stop exploiting female artistes,” said Sarah Dee. -@mthabisi_mthire