Cont Mhlanga: A strange happy acquaintance

Instead of an unreasonable tribalist I had heard of and sometimes believed I knew from his many writings, I discovered an intellectual, an artiste, a creative genius, a hard- bargaining genius and a man with a vision for the transformation of the arts industry in Zimbabwe.He understood that the arts and media are the glue that ensures that human finite intellectual and creative genius is brought to life.How do we get the corporates to embrace the arts and understand that in many countries artistes are not paupers but a people who operate on the same table with the rich and famous.How can we use Cont’s passing on to get our nationals across all domains of society including politics to understand that the arts go beyond a few iconic musicians, which by the way also owe their success to the 75 percent local content policy thrust.

I MET and began to know Cont Mhlanga in 2002 when I was CEO of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation.I surely owed my Bulawayo team something even if that meant meeting Cont Mhlanga.