Financial Gazette (Harare)
Arts Writer
8 May 2008
Harare — ARTISTS for Democracy in Zimbabwe Trust (ADZT), an organisation with interests in lobbying for and fighting for the rights of artists, is assisting artists who are affected by the ongoing political violence sweeping through the country.
The organisation said it had put in place a number of humanitarian logistics to help artists who were caught up in the political violence.
"We are assisting a number of artists throughout the country who have been affected by political violence in all provinces of the country.
"We are giving them food, clothing and other necessities that they might need at the moment," said ADZT co-ordinator, Ethel Mapiye.
The organisation said it has so far assisted seven artists in Karoi, Chinhoyi and Bindura, after learning their safety was threatened because they participated at opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) rallies, the organisationd is helping them relocate to safe places.
"The artists are Simon Chitsa, a musician, Alec Choto, who is involved in theatre in Karoi, Susan Mapange another theatre practitioner in Karoi, Chekai Ruwigi a member of a band in Chinhoyi and Severino Sarikwa, a poet in Bindura.
"We are still receiving reports of displacement from other artists in other parts of the country," said Mapiye.
The artist's organisation said it condemned the political violence that has gripped the country in the aftermath of the March 29 elections, in which presidential results took more than a month to be announced.
A member of the organisation's board of trustees and founder member, Okay Machisa, said his organisation would soon launch an artists against violence campaign.
"Although we are an organisation specifically dealing with the welfare of artists, we are saddened by the upsurge in violence which has hit the core of the Zimbabwean societal fibre to such an extent that even innocent artists are bearing the brunt of this state-sponsored violence," said Machisa.
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