The Sunday Mail
“The idea we have is to construct a theatre on one end of the bridge and on the other end we will have a shop selling CD’s, craft works, DVD’s amongst many other arts related materials. We will also have the bridge turned into a WIFI hotspot and we are doing all this to encourage people to start using the bridge again. As a theatre company we will also need this traffic to come through to our shows hence the reason we are not blocking the public from using the bridge.”
Takudzwa Chihambakwe
CONSTRUCTED in 1998 to link a then new bus station and OK Supermarket, the Machipisa footbridge in Harare is a lovely piece of infrastructure that failed to serve its purpose and had been reduced to a public toilet and a haven for drug abusers.Now playwright, actor and director, Tafadzwa Muzondo has vowed to not just stand and watch this menace continue but has taken it upon himself to change the current “disgusting” status quo by turning the bridge into a community theatre space.
“It is really sad to see that this bridge has been turned into a public toilet and a health hazard. It has been lying idle for close to two decades, my fear is it will soon degenerate as nobody is seemingly concerned about it,” said Muzondo.
“So we have decided to turn it into a theatre space. We approached the City of Harare via the Department of Housing and Community Services a couple of months ago, as they are the custodians of arts and culture in the city and they agreed to have us construct a theatre on the bridge.
“They then referred us to the director of works, who is responsible for maintaining all infrastructure in the city and they also came on board and gave us the green light. The idea we have is to construct a theatre on one end of the bridge and on the other end we will have a shop selling CD’s, craft works, DVD’s amongst many other arts related materials.
“We will also have the bridge turned into a WIFI hotspot and we are doing all this to encourage people to start using the bridge again. As a theatre company we will also need this traffic to come through to our shows hence the reason we are not blocking the public from using the bridge,” he added.
On how they are funding the construction and when the theatre would be opened, Muzondo said; “We have various partners we are working with on this project but am happy to reveal that we acquired seed funding from Africalia an organisation that partners with enterprising arts initiatives in Africa.
“The funding will be administered through Nhimbe Trust, which was already dealing with Africalia on various other local arts development initiatives hence they saw it fit to place us within that already existing framework,” explained Muzondo.
Muzondo and team plan to have the theatre up and running by the end of October.
“We will have a clean-up process from October 10 (tomorrow) and thereafter we will have a ground breaking ceremony on October 17 and construction commences till end of month.”
On the impact of the of the project in developing theatre, he said; “As Edzai Isu we have deliberately concentrated on community theatre but unfortunately we could not have the initiatives we had consistently running at a community hall as other people would also want to use it.
“So this space then becomes a talent nurturing hub where we will train youngsters interested in theatre and groom them to become stars.
“We can now invest as much as we can into the space as compared to the days we were using the community hall and this will see us hosting shows featuring established and international acts also not forgetting the young crop of talent we will be developing.”
Muzondo said the walls of the bridge would be turned into a history lane with portraits of Highfield Great’s, individuals who lived in the suburb and made it big in life. These will include President Mugabe, the late Vice-President Dr Joshua Nkomo, Dr Herbet Chitepo, Dr Oliver Mtukudzi, Dr Phillip Chiyangwa and George Tavengwa amongst many others.
