Amakhosi director Mhlanga arrested

Amakhosi director Mhlanga arrested

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By Lebo Nkatazo

ZIMBABWEAN police on Tuesday arrested Amakhosi Theatre Productions' artistic director Cont Mhlanga on allegations of mobilising illegal protests against President Robert Mugabe's government through theatre.

He was later released without charge.

Amakhosi resident theatre producer Styx Mhlanga said Mhlanga was picked up by two officers from Bulawayo's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Law & Order section led by a Detective Sergeant Ngwenya and a Munjayi arrested the outspoken Mhlanga just after 8am.

They had been looking for him since Monday, he said.

Mhlanga was told not to go ahead with a yet to be written production -- Crisis of Zimbabwe -- that is expected to touch on Operation Murambatsvina and another one called Pregnant with Emotion by Rooftop Productions.

Pregnant with Emotion is a satire about Marwei who is 13 months pregnant with
a child who refuses to be born until the country's dictator is ousted from power.

The father Noah, a civil servant and an avid supporter of the ruling party, Zanu PF. But Noah loses his job and the family is evicted from its home through the government's slum demolition campaign code named Operation Murambatsvina.

"What kind of father kicks the children out of the house in the middle of a cold night," asks a poet as the couple huddles asleep on the street.

The play which premiered early this year was expected to move to Amakhosi on June 2. The Amakhosi producer said: "The police said the programmes are not to be shown. They accused Cont of promoting subversive theatre. Crisis in Zimbabwe was commissioned but it has not yet been written."

Mhlanga said: "Theatre is our profession. We make our living through theatre. At the moment, according to our programme, the shows are still on."

Last year, the Zimbabwe government which has shut four critical newspapers in recent years banned another Rooftop Promotions production, Super Patriots and Morons.

The play is a "comedy of political errors" where people of an unnamed country laugh at their own social, political, and economic mistakes.
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