Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
REVELATIONS that Bulawayo Mayor Councillor David Coltart walked out of a 23 April meeting during which the idea of the Bulawayo Arts Festival was brought up caused a heated debate on social media last week.
This festival, council officials told the mayor, would cost up to US$300 000. It was that eye-watering figure that set Mayor Coltart off — in a huff, claiming he had other engagements.
When proceedings from that meeting finally made headlines last week, some felt the Mayor’s indignation was justified.
In a year when most of the country has become a victim of the El Nino phenomenon, the perennially dry City of Kings and Queens has been one of the hardest hit, with a strict water rationing programme leaving most residents thirsty.
Indeed, minutes from the meeting made worrying reading for residents searching for salvation from their water woes.
“It shall be recalled that the council at its sitting on 2nd October 2019 resolved to declare every 1st of June as Bulawayo Day and the 2nd to the 5th of June as Bulawayo Arts Festival week. This was a result of lobbying from stakeholders in the creative industry. Since then, the Bulawayo Arts Festival has been commemorated annually during the first week of June.
“The festival’s objectives are to showcase the city’s rich cultural heritage and diversity as well as marketing it as a tourist destination. The festival is commemorated through a number of activities that include musical shows, dance and exhibitions, among others. The City of Bulawayo and other key stakeholders in the arts, culture and heritage sectors prepare and line up festivities to commemorate the event.
“Annually, the council budgets for the festival. This year a total of three hundred thousand dollars (US$300 000) has been provisionally budgeted for the festival in the hold of vote. The Arts and Culture office will come up with a programme of events for the festival,” read the minutes.
The mayor’s sceptical position on the festival was echoed by many, including Bulawayo United Residents Association (Bura), whose chairperson Winos Dube said a festival was not the cure a thirsty city needed.
Given the backlash that the suggestion received, it is fair to assume that chances are low of the festival seeing the light of day. For the city’s arts practitioners, however, the rejection of the festival was a harsh blow to the stomach, as it seemed to go against the boast by city fathers that Bulawayo is the cultural capital of the country.
For Mgcini Nyoni, an artiste and arts administrator, Mayor Coltart’s position felt like a dismissal of the sector, as he believed that the city would get its return on investment if it bankrolled a worthy arts extravaganza.
“US$300 000 to fund a festival is nothing. It is a very small amount when we are talking about funding a properly curated festival. I’m shocked that Coltart does not understand the concept of investing in multiple things at the same time. We can’t always talk about the shortage of water when other issues are brought up. That’s not how a city is run. A city can deal with a water crisis and also invest in its arts sector. People are taking investment in an arts festival as giving money to artistes but actually, this is investing in the city. When a properly curated festival is run, street vendors, hotels, transport operators and others benefit more than the actual artistes,” he said.
Nyoni said he would understand if criticism of a potential festival was directed at how funds would potentially be put to use.
The last festival, held in 2021, left the city in debt, while artistes were complaining that they had not been paid for services rendered two years later.
Such red flags, Nyoni observed, needed to be ironed out before another festival took off.
“David Coltart is a well-connected man. He knows ambassadors, he knows mayors of other cities so he should be using that to his advantage to push a huge festival that will have people driving from Botswana, will have people coming from Zambia and flying from South Africa into Bulawayo. However, if the mayor is just dismissing the idea just like that, then you have to wonder if he is a man who came in to just build a dam. If that is the case, then he should not have become a mayor but taken on another portfolio because a mayor is a person who should be broad in his thinking.
“A festival is something crucial to the city and over time, should become self-funding. So my view is that the mayor is wrong in opposing the funding of a festival. If he was opposing the planning, then I would understand. Who’s the festival director? What’s the festival theme? Where are the venues? If people are discussing things like that, I would understand. If he said there’s not enough clarity on what the festival would look like, then I would understand instead of dismissing the entire idea offhand. If that’s the case then the mayor and the general populace don’t understand the role that festivals play,” he said.
Event organiser Dalubuhle Sibanda said the latest debate was an age-old discussion in a city where most people view the arts sector as an industry that was not supposed to be taken seriously.
“People always assume that budgets are for ‘serious’ things and that is just not the case. Even in your own home, when you budget for the month, not every cent goes towards maize meal, relish and rent. That is why we have a five-day week because besides work, there has to be time for leisure and entertainment and that is catered for within the same budget.
“This is also the same mentality that has left our recreational facilities and community halls in a derelict state because all these places are not being funded. Places like Centenary Park are not serviced but when we talk of people’s mental health and well-being those are places that give people relief,” he said.
However, Sibanda said he agreed with those who said that money should not be blindly sunk into the festival before feasibility studies were done.
“When we talk of a festival, we need to be scientific about it. We can’t just spend money and not ask what is going to be spent where and how. We need to know how the festival will impact the economy of the city. We need to capture this because we have a university in this city and this is data that can be captured. You will find out that the amount that was being spoken about is not even enough to host a week-long festival.
“Maybe if you invest US$300 000, you can bring in one million worth of investment because the purpose of a festival is to bring in people from other countries and cities to visit yours and spend there. This is not something new because if we look at cities like Dublin or EThekwini, they host similar festivals in their cities. EThekwini gives Tira R1m for a festival and if you look at Durban July, the city invests heavily in that as well. It doesn’t mean that water is not valuable. Having water problems does not mean that water is the only issue that we have to deal with,” he said.
Comedian Miss Dee said she felt that there was no reason why the festival could not, over time, become a money-making venture like the ZITF.