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Mthabisi Tshuma, Showbiz Correspondent
The dusk to dawn curfew that was recently imposed in the country amid a spike in local Covid-19 cases has affected the production of drama series, Ziyathunqa, as the crew can no longer shoot night scenes.

The thought-provoking series, a production of Geraldine Roche Drama (GRD) which is in Kalanga, Sotho, Shona, English and Ndebele languages, chronicles Bulawayo’s daily life and everything that happens in its periphery.

Its shoot started early this month.

The series’ project manager, Khaliphile Sibanda, said the pandemic had greatly affected the series’ desired presentation as it has generally been difficult to shoot under lockdown due to the restrictions.

“It’s so hard to shoot under lockdown because everything is slow as we’re operating with limited crew members where we shoot a scene with two to three people.

“Measures like social distancing are slowly killing the art industry and creativity in general as we have to avoid love or perfect family scenes because of this measure,” said Sibanda.

She said they only managed to shoot three episodes and are now monitoring the situation to see if they can continue shooting.

“We’ve done three episodes so far from the targeted 13 and these have been done indoors. We’re hoping that the situation changes in the near future so that we deliver a breath-taking production.”

The lead characters are Sithandazile Malaba, a Kalanga/Sotho speaking subservient woman brought up in traditional African culture, Ndodana a Form 3 boy at a middle class secondary school, Lubelihle a

Kalanga/Sotho speaking rural girl and Jetro Msimanga a man who is a dreamer who loves making quick cash and keeping up appearances.

Other characters are Milidzani Nleya, an old Kalanga/Sotho speaking rural man, Vimbai Shoko a good looking and prosperous s’phatheleni, Shamiso a spoilt girl who learns at a private school and Desmond Msimanga, an ex-convict but, good hearted person. – @mthabisi_mthire.