/ARTS WEEKLY/MUSIC-ZIMBABWE: Import Law Comes into Effect

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Ish Mafundikwa

HARARE, Jun 24 2003 (IPS) - A long-awaited law, which allows the import of musical instruments and broadcasting equipment duty free, has come into effect in Zimbabwe.

The law, gazetted recently, follows up on a promise made by the minister of finance, Herbert Murerwa when he announced the National Economic Revival Plan earlier this year. The plan views the cultural sector as key to Zimbabwe’s economic recovery.

The move is also seen as an attempt to strengthen the production of music in the country, since the stipulation by government that 75 percent of all music and television programming be of Zimbabwean origin.

The requirement became law in 2000 and has seen an increase in local recordings and television programmes. Because of a lack of facilities, the quality of the productions has always left a lot to be desired.

Zimbabwean musicians have always complained about the lack of musical instruments and the high duty they had to pay on the importation of instruments.

Under the new regulations, the tax department ‘may in each case fix, a rebate of duty on such rebatable goods. which have been imported by a registered arts organisation’.

Qualification for the rebate is subject to an organisation being registered with the state-run National Arts Council. And the company cannot dispose of any instruments within five years of being imported.

One of the country’s most promising young musicians Plaxedis Wenyika has described the gazetting of the law as "a brilliant idea".

"It has come at the right time for some of us starting out," she says.

Wenyika says the regulations should see more musicians setting up their own companies. "If more systems are imported into the country, the owners will be forced to charge less for their use," she says.

But, Harare recording studio owner Lennox Chibanda believes it will not necessarily help upcoming musicians who are the intended beneficiaries. "They simply do not have the money," he says. "It is the guys with the money who will import the stuff and hire it out to the youngsters."

This has been the way most young bands operate in Zimbabwe.

Chibanda says instead of allowing anybody, who has registered with the council to import, it would have been better to have an organisation to import and then monitor the prices at which they can sell. Those who have money, he says, will always charge whatever they want for the use of their instruments. And, since they will not be paying any duties, they will be making lots of profit, he adds.

His sentiments were echoed by Debbie Metcalfe, the manager of Zimbabwe’s superstar Oliver Mtukudzi. "It will certainly benefit those who can raise the money, and that excludes a lot of upcoming musicians," she says.

Mtukudzi says the move was long overdue. "It’s a struggle we have been fighting for a long time not merely for us as artists but for the industry as a whole," he says.

Mtukudzi, however, expressed reservations about the requirement for one to be registered with the council to qualify to import. "I, as Oliver Mtukudzi, am known. How about the youngster who could be more talented than myself but is unknown?" he asks.

A National Arts Council spokesperson says any musician who is a member of an association affiliated to the council can apply to import the instruments or equipment.

Former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Education and Culture, playwright Steven Chifunyise, says the development will open doors for musicians who go and play abroad. "They can use their earnings to buy new or used equipment," he says.

Chifunyise says plans are underway to import instruments through designated companies that will then sell them at reasonable prices to aspiring musicians. "This also applies to film and video equipment which will become easily accessible," he says.

Some fans argue that the local music industry cannot grow as long as Zimbabwe’s economy continues on its downward spiral.

John Moyo, a bank staff in the capital Harare, says music is a luxury he can hardly afford at the moment. "There isn’t much disposable income for buying CDs or cassettes let alone for entry into live concerts. So to me this is a non-event," he says.

Prisca Mandla, a self-employed flea market vendor, says "what we need is food and fuel not musical instruments".

Up to seven million people – more than half the country’s population – need food aid in Zimbabwe. The food shortage has been caused by a combination of drought and the country’s controversial land reform programme. Under the programme, which was implemented between 2000 and 2002, the government of President Robert Mugabe seized land from 4,500 white commercial farmers for redistribution to landless blacks.

White farmers used to produce the bulk of Zimbabwe’s food crops.

Zimbabwe, whose inflation rate has reached almost 300 percent, has no foreign currency to import fuel.