By Elizabeth Nyaguyo
The late film-maker and director Conte Mhlanga will be granted State assisted funeral in recognition of his work and contribution to the arts sector.
President Emmerson made the announcements in a statement released by the Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Dr Misheck Sibanda.
The Amakhosi Theatre Center founder passed on yesterday in Bulawayo after he was admitted in hospital some ten days ago.
“This is in recognition of his great achievements as an internationally acclaimed playwright, filmmaker and creative director who came as a trail-blazer in our country’s creative and cultural industry,” the statement read in part.
Conte had been appointed member of the National Team for the Creation of a Strategy for the Zimbabwe Film Sector.
“On behalf of the Office of the President and Cabinet and indeed on my behalf I wish foremost to express my deepest condolences to the Mhlanga family who have lost a beloved father and breadwinner and to the cultural and creative arts community in general who are the poorer with the demise of one Zimbabwe’s most respected icons the arts sector has ever produced,” said President Mnangagwa in the statement.
Conte wrote over 20 plays among them The Good President which was banned in Zimbabwe. He was arrested and briefly detained in May 2006 on the grounds that his plays were anti-government and meant to incite an uprising against then President Robert Mugabe’s regime.
