After touring Zambia and South Africa — a year after the Censorship Board allowed No Voice, No Choice, a play about political recon­ciliation, the thought-provoking drama has finally been banned.
No Voice, No Choice, a play by Tafadzwa Muzondo’s Edzai Isu Theatre Group in collab­oration with Mufakose-based Zvido Zvevanhu Arts Ensemble, recently toured Manicaland and Masvingo, and was in the process of going nationwide, covering all the country’s provinces.

Before the shocking ban, that is, after having been given the green light to tour Masvingo by the provincial magistrate, Jabulani Mzinyathi, Muzondo and crew were preparing for Bulawayo’s premier arts fiesta, Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo.
My question is simple really: why allow the artistes to go ahead and stage a play throughout the country if it is unsuitable for public con­sumption?
Does this then mean that the political cli­mate of just two months ago, because the Cen­sorship Board gave the play a provisional order on July 23, has changed so much that the play has been adjudged totally unsuitable?

According to Muzondo, the provisional order granted this year on July 23 came after the board had had the script for about two weeks, assuming that they would have read it and agreed that whatever problems the script might have had were not bad enough to warrant a complete ban.
Excited, Muzondo proceeded to line up shows throughout the country starting with Masvingo Province where he encountered some problems with the police, but still got comforted by the help he got from the Censor­ship Board, although the courts had the final say.

The play went on to be staged in Jerera, Nyika, Rujeko and at the Youth Cultural Arts Festival. After that the play also toured Manica­land — going to such places as Nyazura, Nyanga, Dangamvura, Sakubva and the Meik­les Park in the city centre.
But suddenly, the board has decided to “ban and prohibit” the play from ever being staged in Zimbabwe.
Said Muzondo: “Normally when the Cen­sorship Board has problems with any of our work they bring us in and ask us to make cor­rections on certain aspects that they would not be comfortable with. The outright ban is not just shocking but an affront to the arts and cre­ative industry.”

Muzondo said his organisation, which has since managed to get help from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights (ZLHR) to try and overturn the ban, is not interested in picking a fight.
“Had we been told back then that the play was no good, we would not have had any prob­lems and I can assure you the courts would not have even come into the picture. We are just trying to save our livelihood because we have big plans for this production and everywhere we are going with it — the ordinary man loves it,” said Muzondo.

Besides having been preparing to perform at Intwasa Festival and having produced publicity material for the show — No Voice, No Choice was set to be staged at the Bulawayo Theatre, Tshabalala, Matshobane, Gwanda and Plumtree. “We were looking forward to thrill audiences at Intwasa with this mature enter­taining play with a crucial anti-violence and tolerance message. The Intwasa performances are special to us because this will be the first anniversary of this play, which had its first per­formance on the International Day of Peace commemorations on September 21 last year.
“All we wanted to do was give a good account of this mature production which has been to countries like South Africa and Zambia while locally it has toured Masvingo and Man­icaland. So I was really shocked that they sud­denly issued a ban on this play because we are bona fide artistes not political activists and the reason for sending the script for censorship is because we are law-abiding Zimbabweans

making an honest living as artistes,” added Muzondo.

The play, being a collaboration, created employment for about 10 artistes, all with fami­lies to feed, who for over a year have been living off it. Even the National Arts Council of Zim­babwe (NACZ) director, Elvas Mari, who watched the play for the first time in Masvingo last month, expressed shock at the controversy surrounding it.
Before the play’s ban, Mari had expressed dismay at why the police had tried to stop the production from going ahead in Masvingo and some parts of Manicaland — describing the play as a piece of art that is no different from many other plays that have been watched at places like Theatre in the Park.

Daves Guzha, of Rooftop Promotions, who has had one of his plays, Super Patriots and Morons, banned from ever appearing on a stage on Zimbabwean soil, appealed to the courts and the responsible ministry to look into some of the material that is deemed unfit for consumption.

“If a play does not provoke or help change a person’s thinking about a certain subject, then that play is of no use. Everyday, material that is dangerous to our kids because of its porno­graphic nature is left to be watched in our the­atres — but when one creates a play such as No Voice, No Choice, a play about political recon­ciliation, they get slapped,” moaned Guzha.
He added: “Why let these guys plan their lives on this play if they knew that it was not fit for our theatres? This is exactly what happened with my play Super Patriots and Morons and, to be honest, it does not help things at all. Let us all as Zimbabweans work together and not pull each other down.”

When contacted for comment, Isaac Simon Shumba Chiranganyika, the secretary for the Censorship Board, refused to comment on the issue, referring all questions to the Permanent Secretary of the parent ministry, the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Efforts to contact the Permanent Secretary, Melusi Matshiya, yielded no results by the time of going to print.

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