BY KENNETH NYANGANI

The MDC-Alliance says it expects to retain the Mutasa Rural District Council’s (MRDC) ward 10 seat in a by-election set for May 11 after High Court judge Justice Isaac Muzenda dismissed an application by the deposed councillor seeking to stop the poll.

Mutasa Central ward 10 Frank Chitembwe had made the application seeking to stop the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) from going ahead with the poll.

Chitembwe filed an urgent High Court application early this month, seeking an order to set aside Zec’s decision to hold the by-election next week.

Mutasa Rural District Council chief executive officer Tonderai Bandura opposed the application.

Chitembwe was slapped with a two-year jail term for public violence during the January 14-16 fuel price hike protests before he successfully applied for bail pending appeal early this month.

But a nomination court had already sat with three candidates successfully filing their nomination papers to contest the election.

In an interview with NewsDay yesterday, Mutasa Central MP Trevor Saruwaka said they were ready to win the by-election.

MDC candidate Rose Mukodza will lock horns with Justice Chirimo (NCA) and Magret Tindika of Zanu PF.

“I want to make it clear that ward 10 of Mutasa Central is a strong Zanu PF area, which has been successfully won by MDC candidates since 2008 to date and Zanu PF is going to (again) lose hands down,” Saruwaka said

“This is the ward I come from, so it is going to be easy for me to campaign. Other opposition stalwarts like Mutasa South MP Regai Tsunga comes from the same ward and has already indicated that he would be helping in the campaign.”

Saruwaka added: “Ironically, the current Zanu PF candidate is a former MDC member, who switched parties after being walloped at the 2013 primary elections by the outgoing MDC councillor Frank Chitembwe.”

BY John Ward

Many old-timers, including his captain the late David Lewis, will aver that Don Arnott, who died in Harare on April 11 2019 at the age of 83, was arguably the finest wicket-keeper ever produced by the country.

In his brief career for Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, he played in only 28 first-class matches between 1954/55 and 1961/62, but came very close to playing Test cricket for South Africa.

Don attended Plumtree School, where his excellent wicket-keeping won him a place in the strong school team when he was still an Under-15 player. In his final two years at school he was selected for the Rhodesian Schools team that played in the South African Nuffield Week, in 1954 and 1955, and in the second year he was chosen for the South African Schools team that played against the Western Province Currie Cup team in Cape Town.

He had scarcely left school when he was drafted into the national team on its tour to South Africa, after the last-minute withdrawal of Cecil Harris. Unfortunately, he missed the first match against Border after being hit while standing up to the bowling of Joe Partridge in the nets, an accident that also cost him a tooth.

He made his début against Griqualand West in Kimberley, a quiet match for him, but he did well enough to be an automatic selection for the national team after that when available.

He quickly won the admiration of South African experts too, so much so that when, in the 1956/57 Test series against England, the regular South African wicketkeeper Johnny Waite was doubtful for the third Test match, Don was called up as a stand-by in case he did not recover in time — which he, however, did. As Waite was the much better batsman, Don was unable to challenge for his place when fit.

He was credited with having a perfect wicket-keeping technique and, despite his experience in the nets with Partridge, he often stood up to his fast-medium bowling and effected some remarkable leg-side stumpings off his inswingers.

Don was a capable batsman in club cricket, where he played for the then Salisbury (now Harare) Sports Club, but was never able to score heavily in first-class matches. He had an excellent temperament and a sound defence, hard to dismiss and he never flinched from the fastest bowling, so he became the team’s regular night-watchman. It was in this role that he scored his only first-class fifty, an innings of 58 against the touring New Zealand team in 1961/62, his final season. But often he was able to stand in the gap when a collapse threatened and hold up the opposing bowlers with a solid innings that was worth far more than the runs it actually produced.

Unfortunately, his career came to a premature end. In the days when all national cricketers were amateurs, he began his working life in insurance, but in the late 50s decided to go into tobacco farming near Raffingora, in Mashonaland West, far from Harare. He found it increasingly difficult to play for his country, although he continued to play cricket in the country districts for many years. He also played hockey for the Districts.

Don was quoted in the Herald newspaper in 1967 as saying: “I never really retired from first-class cricket. I just faded out of the picture when I went farming.”

There was some talk at that time of his making a serious comeback, but it never materialised – the paper said that he was “still rated by some as the best wicketkeeper in South Africa for sheer technical brilliance”. Fortunately, for the country, he had an outstanding replacement in the late Tony de Caila.

In 1964 he was a member of the Mashonaland Country Districts team to tour England, playing mainly against strong club teams and county second elevens. His wicket-keeping was a major feature of the tour.

When he retired from farming and returned to live in Zimbabwe, he took up umpiring, with as much success as he had keeping wicket — and similar brevity. For several years he umpired in Zimbabwe’s first-class matches during the 1980s against touring teams, mainly A teams, from Test-playing countries and was very highly rated. Unfortunately, before Zimbabwe gained Test status, he felt his eyesight was declining and he retired.

Don went into cricket administration, managing several Zimbabwe touring teams; and in 1994 he was appointed the first chief executive officer of the then Zimbabwe Cricket Union after it gained Test status and needed to develop its administration. This was probably his most difficult job in cricket, as in the days before big television coverage, lack of finance was a serious problem. He ran a tight ship and kept the organisation solvent, but making progress was a great struggle for him, causing him much stress. He was no doubt, relieved in 1998 to hand over the job to Dave Ellman-Brown on the latter’s retirement from Coopers and Lybrand.

He was not altogether finished with the game, as he was sometimes appointed match referee, including during the Under-19 World Cup matches of 2001/02. He was elected a life vice-president and was for some years a Zimbabwe Cricket board member until his resignation in 2004.

As a man he was tall for a wicketkeeper, well built and described as being generally of a retiring and unassuming nature, a man of impeccable character.

His son, Kevin, also played cricket for Zimbabwe, opening their batting in their first four Test matches with an average of 43 and a Test century against New Zealand. He too retired prematurely, due to his legal practice and frequent hand injuries.

BY Richard Muponde

A CHIPINGE soldier and a taxi driver allegedly stole Cyclone Idai relief aid and escaped from a police roadblock after being cornered, but were involved in a road traffic accident soon after.

This was revealed when the soldier, Bigbrain Sithole (23) of 3.3 Infantry Battalion in Chipinge and taxi driver, Philosopher Ratiso (32) of 46 Ngangu Township in Chipinge appeared before Chipinge magistrate, Joshua Nembaware.

They were both remanded out of custody on $500 bail each accompanied by stringent conditions.

This was after their lawyers, Langton Mhungu and Tatiro Tazvitya of Mhungu and Associates and Bere Brothers Legal practitioners respectively, applied for bail on their behalf.

Prosecutor, Shamiso Ncube told the court that on April 23, Sithole was on duty guarding Cyclone Idai aid relief at Silverstream base in Chimanimani.

He allegedly connived with Ratiso and one Maitai, who is still at large, to steal some of the aid.

Ratiso, a taxi driver, then came with Maitai to the base where Sithole was on duty during the night and loaded blankets, clothes, mattresses, shoes and clothes into the taxi.

The trio left the base headed for Chipinge.

However, when they arrived at Jopa turn-off along Birchenough Bridge Bridge–Mount Selinda Road they were stopped by Sergeant Major Givemore Nyamayaro together with Constables Damburai and Kunaka who were manning a police roadblock.

When they stopped, Maitai jumped out of the vehicle and disappeared into darkness.

Ratiso and Sithole waited for the vehicle to be searched and on being questioned about their consignment, they allegedly drove off at high speed from the roadblock.

However, they were involved in an accident near Birchenough Bridge leading to Ratiso’s arrest, who implicated Sithole.

He was later arrested by the military police while on duty at Silverstream base and handed over to the police.

All the stolen property was recovered.

BY TATIRA ZWINOIRA

ZIMRE Property Investments Limited (ZPI) says the restructuring of its portfolio led to a loss of US$1,42 million for the year ended December 31, 2018 from a profit after tax of US$2,48 million in the previous year.

In a statement accompanying the firm’s 2018 results yesterday, ZPI chairperson Jean Maguranyanga said the disposal of Zimre Centre in Harare to finance the construction of its planned Sawanga Shopping Mall in Victoria Falls and conversion of the Nicoz House building to student accommodation in Bulawayo impacted revenues.

“This was part of a broader portfolio restructuring and diversification strategy to enhance the portfolio’s future income earning capacity. The two buildings contributed more than a third of the rental income in prior years. The reduction in revenue was, therefore, anticipated in the short-term,” she said.

“In order to manage risk precipitated by market uncertainty, the board took a deliberate decision to slow-down project sales during the year under review. As a result, stand sales were $1,72 million compared to $2,4 million achieved in 2017…As a result of the restructuring of the portfolio and reduction in stand sales, revenue performance was subdued.”

Maguranyanga said the projects were expected to start earning revenue in this current quarter.

Revenue dropped 24% to US$4,2 million from a 2017 comparative of US$5,27 million.

Rental income declined 21% to US$2,2 million in the 2018 period from a 2017 comparative of US$2,78 million. This added to a reduced net property income of US$1,8 million for the 2018 period from a comparative of US$3,73 million earned in 2017.

“There was a rapid erosion of rental revenues due to inflation and the contractual nature of leases which made it difficult to immediately adjust rentals. Turnover-based leases performed comparatively better than the other sectors, managing to track the inflationary trends,” Maguranyanga said.

“Some tenants scaled down operations, while others closed due to the difficult economic environment.”

However, the group managed to reduce its total administration costs by 4% to US$2,19 million in the period under review due to a reduction in employee expenses by 20%. This was from total administration costs of US$2,29 million in 2017.

Further, in terms of liquidity, ZPI recorded a current ratio of 3,58, showing the firm was insulated enough to cover its liabilities should they come due.

Total assets for the period under review declined to US$54,48 million, buoyed by a serious reduction in cash and cash equivalents to just US$285 826 from a 2017 comparative of US$10,22 million.

The drop in total assets was from a 2017 comparative of US$56,62 million.

In an outlook, Maguranyanga said: “The company continues to focus on restructuring its portfolio to maximise performance and returns, and capitalise on opportunities created through the various reforms undertaken by government”.

Tafadzwa Mutumbi

BY TAFADZWA KACHIKO

A local play — There Is a Field — whose focal point is the shooting of a Palestinian-Israeli peace activist, Aseel Asleh in 2000, to reflect on Zimbabwe security forces’ brutality and the national healing discourse, is set to premiere at Theatre in the Park in Harare from today until Friday.

Written by Jen Marlowe, the play fuses traditional music, dances and costumes as well as physical theatre to create a beautiful package.

Play director Tafadzwa Mutumbi told NewsDay Life & Style that the play gives pathway to the audience so that they clearly explore the Zimbabwean situation.

“It’s essentially a story about State security’s brutality based on a true story of Aseel who, at 17, was shot dead on October 2, 2000 by Israeli security forces.

“Themes raised by looking at his life and murder enable audiences to further explore the connections and build solidarity across universal struggles for liberation and equality,” he said.

“The play is a daring, poignant and provocative meditation on the meaning of hope, justice, healing and being human in the face of police brutality, State impunity and apartheid. It offers a uniquely personal lens for understanding inequality as the root of State violence and impunity.”

Mutumbi said although it is a Palestinian story, it reflects on both the past and current situation in Zimbabwe, especially on how the government silences opposing voices using its brutal security arms.

“The play encourages us to look at ourselves. If you watch it and it does not captivate you, it means you will not be paying attention. It offers a new lens on national healing by focusing on families of the victims. How does the family deal with the situation? It’s personal, but wider in a way. There are so many wounds that need to be healed. Zimbabweans have plenty of wounds that need healing. No one is ready to clean the wounds for proper healing. That affects communities and families,” he said.

Mutumbi said State brutality was prevalent even under the new dispensation, adding there can never be positive political and socio-economic transformation in the absence of national healing.

The cast includes Eyhara Mathazia, Nyaradzo Nhongonhema, Stewart Sakarombe, Ngoni Chikowore and Munashe Goromonzi, with music done by Brezhnev Guvheya.

Editorial Comment

HIV and Aids has ravaged nations, Zimbabwe included, killing millions of mostly the productive age groups. Over the years, researchers have been working on a vaccine which would halt the rampant infections.

And now finally some good news: A promising African-led clinical trial PreVacc is underway and if successful, many lives will be saved with just a few shots. Zimbabwe will be one of the countries where the trial will be conducted.

A vaccine that can prevent infection would condition the immune system to respond to HIV by making antibodies that can arrest the virus and stop it from infecting cells, or by promoting other immune responses that kill the virus altogether.

Although no vaccine is 100% effective, finding an effective one is critical for the HIV response.

The magnitude of the disease cannot be underestimated with statistics showing that 1,8 million people became infected with HIV in 2017, while 36,9 million people were living with HIV and 21,7 million receiving anti-retroviral therapy.

Even with the scale-up of highly-effective prevention and treatment tools, the decline rate of new infections is not adequate to bring the HIV epidemic to an end.

For countries like Zimbabwe, despite dramatic improvements in access to anti-retroviral therapy this is still an expensive option, given the many challenges in providing affordable medication to those that are in need. There are perennial shortages of anti-retroviral drugs as well as supportive mechanisms and equipment. Viral load machines in public hospitals are not working and given the current price hikes of basic food commodities, many people living with Aids may not get the appropriate nutritional needs.

Good nutrition is a key component for a successful treatment plan. Nutritional status and the progression of HIV are strongly interrelated. HIV infection increases the body’s energy needs while it diminishes appetite and decreases the body’s ability to digest food and absorb nutrients. This leads to malnutrition, which in turn accelerates the HIV infection.

This scenario is an indication that a vaccine is needed, especially for the adolescents.

A model developed by the International Aids Vaccine Initiative has estimated that a vaccine that can stop 70% of infections would reduce new infections by 44% in the first 10 years after the projected introduction in 2027. By 2070, a vaccine that was 70% effective would reduce new infections by 78%.

The cost of administering a vaccine is substantially lower than providing PrEP or HIV treatment. By preventing new infections and reducing the cost of prevention, an HIV vaccine would improve the sustainability of the HIV response.

Guest Column: TNeelakshi Mungra, Krupa Naran & Trishana Nundalall

The exorbitant costs of cancer drugs make it difficult for public and private health care systems to provide the latest treatments to patients. If this trend continues it will become increasingly difficult for patients to access basic cancer treatment, let alone the new generation of immunotherapy drugs.

Immunotherapy refers to a therapeutic approach that targets or manipulates the immune system to fight disease without harming normal cells.

In March 2019, the US released the first immunotherapy drug for breast cancer to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The drug, called Tecentriq, is used to treat triple-negative breast cancer. This type of cancer is resistant to surgery and chemotherapy. It highlights the major benefits of immunotherapy in patients who have limited — if any treatment options.

For developing countries like South Africa, finding immunotherapy solutions is particularly important given the country’s weak health system and the high cost of cancer drugs. The University of Cape Town has set up the country’s first medical biotechnology-based immunotherapy laboratory. The lab, where we do our research, is strongly committed to the development of novel therapeutic and diagnostic tools for cancer.

Most cancer research has been done on populations of European descent. This means that there’s minimal data on African populations. Our lab aims to fill this knowledge gap by diagnosing and treating patients of African descent. The aim is to identify immunotherapy targets in this underrepresented population.

Our research

There are five main classes of immunotherapies. These are: Cancer vaccines: These are a collection of immune cells that have been removed from a cancer patient and manipulated to enhance their ability to attack cancer before being readministered into the patient.

Cytokine immunotherapy: This involves treating a patient with cytokines, which are proteins made by immune cells that signal other immune cells to kill a cancerous cell.

Antibody-based therapies: These represent the largest class of approved immunotherapies and are our lab’s main research focus. Antibodies are proteins produced by the body’s immune cells. These can identify pathogens and elicit a response to eradicate diseased cells or disease-causing agents.

Antibodies are like puzzle pieces — and diseases are like an incomplete puzzle. Therefore, only antibodies with a specific shape will fit into the “cancer puzzle”. Antibodies with other shapes would fit other puzzles, but not cancer. The ability of antibodies to discriminate between different cells and diseases is the basis for antibody-based immunotherapies.

The exorbitant costs of cancer drugs make it difficult for public and private health care systems to provide the latest treatments to patients. If this trend continues it will become increasingly difficult for patients to access basic cancer treatment, let alone the new generation of immunotherapy drugs.

Immunotherapy refers to a therapeutic approach that targets or manipulates the immune system to fight disease without harming normal cells.

In March 2019, the United States released the first immunotherapy drug for breast cancer to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The drug, called Tecentriq, is used to treat triple-negative breast cancer. This type of cancer is resistant to surgery and chemotherapy. It highlights the major benefits of immunotherapy in patients who have limited — if any — treatment options.

For developing countries like South Africa, finding immunotherapy solutions is particularly important given the country’s weak health system and the high cost of cancer drugs. The University of Cape Town has set up the country’s first medical biotechnology-based immunotherapy laboratory. The lab, where we do our research, is strongly committed to the development of novel therapeutic and diagnostic tools for cancer.

Most cancer research has been done on populations of European descent. This means that there’s minimal data on African populations. Our lab aims to fill this knowledge gap by diagnosing and treating patients of African descent. The aim is to identify immunotherapy targets in this underrepresented population.

Our research

There are five main classes of immunotherapies. These are:

Cancer vaccines: These are a collection of immune cells that have been removed from a cancer patient and manipulated to enhance their ability to attack cancer before being readministered into the patient.

Cytokine immunotherapy: This involves treating a patient with cytokines, which are proteins made by immune cells that signal other immune cells to kill a cancerous cell. Antibody-based therapies: These represent the largest class of approved immunotherapies and are our lab’s main research focus. Antibodies are proteins produced by the body’s immune cells. These can identify pathogens and elicit a response to eradicate diseased cells or disease-causing agents.

Antibodies are like puzzle pieces – and diseases are like an incomplete puzzle. Therefore, only antibodies with a specific shape will fit into the “cancer puzzle”. Antibodies with other shapes would fit other puzzles, but not cancer. The ability of antibodies to discriminate between different cells and diseases is the basis for antibody-based immunotherapies. Only antibodies with a specific shape will fit into the cancer puzzle.

Our current research involves attaching a light detectable agent to the puzzle piece. This allows us to visualise where a cancer cell is located in a cancer patient’s tissues. We can characterise different types of cancer cells by attaching different coloured light detectable agents to different antibodies. We then generate antibody-drug conjugates that deliver the drug directly to the cancer without harming healthy cells by replacing the light detectable agent on a cancer-fitting antibody with a toxic drug. Immune checkpoint inhibitors: These are essentially antibodies that target specific proteins on tumour cells or T-cells (the main immune cells responsible for killing cancer). These proteins normally send inhibitory signals from cancer cells to T-cells, resulting in T-cell inactivation. By interfering with this signalling, immune checkpoint inhibitors allow T-cells to be activated and tumour cells to be killed.

Adoptive cell therapies: These include the popular CAR-T cell therapies that enhance the natural ability of T-cells to fight cancer. Similar to antibodies, T-cells express different “puzzle pieces” on their surface. These allow them to attach to an incomplete diseased puzzle and to then kill the disease. CAR-T cells are T-cells that have been removed from a patient and modified to have a cancer-specific puzzle piece, allowing the T-cells to directly target the cancer once it’s put back into the patient.

Future of cancer treatment

Preliminary research from around the world indicates that immunotherapies for cancer are less toxic than conventional therapies like chemotherapy and radiation. They also have the potential for fewer and less severe side effects. This means immunotherapies could improve patients’ quality of life. Immunotherapies are effective, safe and relatively easy to manufacture. But they aren’t a standalone wonder drug that can bring about the end of cancer. A multi-pronged approach that involves a combination of the best treatment options has been heralded as the next wave of therapeutic strategies for cancer and may provide a curative treatment.

 Neelakshi Mungrais is a PhD candidate at the MB&I Unit, University of Cape Town; Krupa Naran is a post-doctoral research fellow, Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine, University of Cape Town and Trishana Nundalall is a PhD candidate at the MB&I Unit

Guest Column: Peter Penar & Carolyn Logan

In recent months, persistent protesters in Algeria and Sudan have faced down government repression to depose long-time political leaders. Unfortunately, these two countries are the exception rather than the norm. More often than not, political opposition in countries across the continent has met a different fate as governments have used a variety of tactics to restrict freedoms and dissent. These include shutting down the internet (Cameroon, Zimbabwe), imposing social media taxes (Uganda), and imposing blogger licenses (Tanzania). Governments have also resorted to outright violence like in Burundi, Senegal, Togo and Zambia.

Freedom House’s 2019 Freedom in the World Report suggests that political liberalisation in countries like Ethiopia and The Gambia belies “creeping restrictions” and a general trend toward authoritarian behaviour. This trend is confirmed in the most recent survey conducted by Afrobarometer, an independent African research network. It was conducted between late 2016 and late 2018 in 34 countries. On average across all the countries surveyed, citizens appeared to confirm that civic and political space was closing. Many also expressed a willingness to accept restrictions on their liberties in the name of security.

Shrinking political space

Two-thirds (67%) of the respondents said they were at least “somewhat” free to say what they thought. This represents a seven percentage point decline across 31 countries tracked since 2011/2013.

When it came to the freedom to discuss politics, the picture was more troubling: 68% felt that they needed to be careful about what they said. Across a sample of 20 countries tracked over the past decade, expressions of caution had increased by nine percentage points.

If freedom is weakening, so is popular demand for it. Six in ten respondents (62%) believed that citizens should be able to join any political organisation they choose. Yet, popular insistence on freedom of association declined by at least three percentage points in 21 of the surveyed countries. It grew in just seven countries Figure 1: Changes in support for freedom to join any organisation (percentage points) — 33 countries — 2008-2018 Note: The Gambia is not shown because it was first surveyed in 2018.

In Gabon and Togo more than 80% of citizens rejected the idea that the government should have the right to ban organisations that went against its policies. In both countries growing popular discontent with political processes was met with government efforts to repress discontent.

In contrast, in Tanzania just 39% of citizens favoured full freedom of association. The government in Tanzania has recently taken steps to close political space. Likewise, there was some underlying support in Kenya for increasing efforts to social control. Only 47% of respondents supported freedom of association. Individual freedoms versus security? A second troubling trend was the considerable willingness to accept government restrictions on individual freedoms in the name of public security.

For example, a slim majority (53%) of respondents stood for people’s right to private communication. But a substantial minority (43%) were willing to accept that governments should be able to monitor private communications to make sure that people weren’t plotting violence. This included monitoring their cellphones. More than two-thirds supported the right to private communication in Zimbabwe, Gabon, and Sudan, all countries where civil liberties are still contested. But only about one-third or less of citizens in Cameroon, Burkina Faso, Tanzania, Senegal, and Mali opted for freedom over security when it came to private communication. Forty-nine percent of respondents favoured complete freedom of religious speech, while 47% thought the government should be able to regulate what was said in places of worship. The lowest levels of support for religious freedom came from Tunisia (21%), Mali (23%), and Senegal (31%). (Both Mali and Tunisia have experienced major incidents of extremist violence). Support for freedom of movement is even less robust. Only about one in three Africans (35%) said that even when their country is faced with security threats, people should be free to move about the country at any time of day or night.  

Political liberalisation

Since these trends in demand for and supply of freedoms vary considerably by country, more detailed country-level analysis would be instructive. Looking in particular at countries that have experienced significant political liberalisation in recent years, we found that Gambians generally embraced freedoms of association, communication, and speech in religious settings. But they supported the idea that the government should be able to impose curfews and roadblocks.

In contrast, in Burkina Faso and Tunisia, the majority of people supported government monitoring of private communications, regulation of religious speech, and restrictions on free movement, with average support for freedom of association.

These levels of support for government restrictions in Burkina Faso and Tunisia are concerning, given that political liberalisation in both countries is relatively recent and still vulnerable.

In Zimbabwe, where the new government has argued that a “new dispensation” is afoot since the ousting of former President Robert Mugabe, citizens generally embraced basic freedoms, and saw no change in the level of freedom of expression over the past decade. But Zimbabweans expressed high levels of caution about exercising basic freedoms, suggesting scepticism about the government’s gestures toward political liberalisation.

 Peter Penar is an assistant political science professor at Michigan State University

 Carolyn Logan is deputy director of the Afrobarometer & associate professor in the Department of Political Science and MSU’s African Studies Center, Michigan State University, US

Butholezwe Kgosi Nyathi

BY SHARON SIBINDI

THE newly-appointed National Gallery of Zimbabwe Bulawayo regional director, Butholezwe Kgosi Nyathi, has vowed to transform the entity into a vibrant nucleus for art in the country.

His appointment follows the recent retirement of long-serving director Voti Thebe.

The 33-year-old Nyathi told NewsDay Life & Style that in the next few years, the NGZ in Bulawayo should demonstrate that Bulawayo is, indeed, the country’s cultural hub.

“I know expectations are high that probably when the director is a young person, you expect to see vibrancy, (itself) a fair and legitimate expectation if I may say,” he said.

“In that regard, the idea which I have always harboured for a long time is that Bulawayo is the real and imagined cultural hub of Zimbabwe, then certainly the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo should be the nucleus in terms of radiating that cultural vibrancy.”

Nyathi said the gallery would invest in talent identification and nurturing, while creating opportunities for artistic exchanges.

“When you invest in that human resource, you are guaranteed that the quality of the exhibitions will also improve. Again if they improve, the expectation is that we diversify and increase audience base — we want to see schools coming in their numbers. We want the gallery to be a multi-racial space where anyone and everyone feels comfortable,” he said.

Nyathi said he was keen to see rural communities patronising the gallery.

“We even want to see our rural communities patronising the space, even those people who ordinarily consider themselves to have nothing to do with the gallery. We want to see how best the gallery can be of service to them,” he said.