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Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent

A play highlighting the challenges that teachers are facing in Zimbabwe is on the cards. 

The play Mbalisi Balis’ ungabalisi, loosely translated to mean “Teacher teach, don’t complain” is based on a published text by Godfree N Muyambo. 

It has been turned into a theatrical production by Naughty by Nature Productions. In the cast there’s a practising teacher at Bulawayo’s St Bernard’s High School, Hlosokuhle Mhlanga, alongside veteran actors Zenzo Nyathi and Gift Chakuvinga. Completing the cast are Mandisi Ndlovu a student at Creative College of Arts and Bathabile Dlamini who is also a television presenter, known for her role as Zinkabi in the award-winning play Umbiko KaMadlenya. 

Mbalisi Balis’ ungabalisi’s writer, renowned playwright Thabani Moyo, a teacher by profession, said the play, premiering in April, is set in a typical staff room where there are varied characters of teachers. 

“In the staff room we find different shades of teachers, the hungry, dedicated teacher, the drunk frustrated teacher, the dealer-teacher who trades in currencies, the tuckshop owner who finds the market within learners, the corrupt administrator who abuses school property like vehicles for personal gain,” said Moyo. 

Since the teachers are struggling to make ends meet, they have become the butt of jokes in society according to Moyo. 

“In a set up where the teacher isn’t paid well, he becomes the butt of every social and economic joke. The low of the low in society are found making jokes of the professional teachers. The play highlights how teachers are made to feel pathetic by their former students who’ve ‘made it’ in life,” said Moyo.

So far, the cast is hard at work in rehearsals.