Cont Mhlanga's wife carries the dream

VETERAN arts administrator and founder of Amakhosi Cultural Centre Continueloving Mhlanga might have moved to build his new empire away from the madding crowd, down deep in Lupane rural, but his dream continues to live.

His wife Thembi Ngwabi, better known as Ugogo, has taken over the reins at the once eventful Amakhosi Cultural Centre.

While not much of arts activities are taking place, Cont's wife has chosen to do it her own way.

The disturbances at the city's once home of arts, started last year when the centre was said to have been awarded a commercial radio broadcasting licence in which Mhlanga was the chief executive officer.

The hype accompanied with enthusiasm was naturally created and the long-drawn renovations started, albeit destroying what has been the traditional hub of arts in the city.

When the now popular radio station Skyz FM Metro started broadcasting from the centre, not long did they take before  relocating from the Amakhosi to one of the skyscrapers of the CBD where they felt there was better connectivity.

Forget all about the almost year-long renovations that took place, in the end the place was abandoned due to its low-lying location.

Skyz Metro FM chief executive officer Qhubani Moyo told the Daily News at the launch of the station that they were forced to abandon Amakhosi due to transmission problems.

"When we were at Amakhosi from September 11 up to around November 30, we had challenges of transmission," Moyo said.

"We were doing pre-recorded programmes. Most of the time, we had problems of getting things in order properly . . . and we tried to do the live broadcasting but we had challenges in that Amakhosi is a low-lying area from Transmedia.

"As a result, we had problems in terms of buffering of the Internet, which would cut on and off, so we thought we needed a higher ground that's why we took advantage of Pioneer House where we have a clear link with Transmedia," he explained.

Moyo was, however, quick to say they haven't really abandoned Amakhosi.

"We realised that we have young talented artistes, including adults who want to record their music so we will use Amakhosi as the hub of music," he said.

With Skyz Metro no longer at Amakhosi, according to the woman in charge, Ngwabi said its business as usual at Amakhosi.

"Lately, we have been concentrating on doing festivals but mostly workshops to do with music and dance," Ngwabi said.

"We recently had a carnival, which we named Epupu Shangani Carnival which took place on June 17 in Lupane and it's going to be an annual event," she said.

But away from many activities that Amakhosi used to be known for, Ngwabi said lately their main focus is on workshops.

"We are doing dance and music workshops throughout the country. We are doing schools and colleges and so far so good, we are receiving overwhelming response.

"We are mainly focusing on traditional dance and music that means we are mostly looking at our culture and originality," she said.

"Last week we were at Masvingo Teachers College for three days and this week we focusing on Matobo then Tsholotsho as the programme continues," she added.

Ngwabi said some of the programmes they had intended to carry out at Amakhosi, were grossly affected by lack of funding hence having to resort to the manageable programmes.

Contacted for comment Cont Mhlanga said all the questions about Amakhosi can no longer be directed to him but to his wife as he was now a "village boy".