Cont Mhlanga hits out at politicians

Arts guru Cont Mhlanga has blasted politicians for abusing artistes and the arts industry to advance their political careers.
Mhlanga was reacting to the recent trend whereby artistes have turned to politicians for revenue streams.

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"It's all about the confusion in the arts industry. The confusion was deliberately caused by politicians, after there was a rise in opposition," Mhlanga said.

"Politicians are desperate for numbers so they moved into using arts which is a huge constituency; hence they used artists for mileage.

"The arts industry is dead, we are only left with the political industry hence artists have ceased to be artists, and we now have activists masquerading as artistes.

"If one aligns himself or herself to a certain political party you are no longer an artist, but a political activist. You will be compromised to then give people artistry, which is free and fair."

Mhlanga said the audience was not gullible to follow trends and politicians.

"The audience is not that gullible and they can see what the artistes are doing and stop aligning with them," he said. "The people are not fools, look at the artists who have aligned themselves with politicians, most of them if not all have not performed for a paying public in years, which should show you that people are not gullible."

Mhlanga added that the advent of new television channels and new media platforms will soon free arts from political capture.

"With the advent of new television channels and other forms of media there will be more demand for content and artistes will go to the new platforms and politicians will be left with no one," he said.

"The television revolution will change content consumption and the artistes that are going to survive the revolution are the ones that are not part of political campaigns."