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Stephen Chifunyise dies

by Staff reporter
06 Aug 2019 at 12:38hrs | Views
VETERAN playwright and former permanent secretary in the Education ministry Stephen Chifunyise has died.

Chifunyise, who at one time taught in the Theatre Arts Department of the University of Zimbabwe, was also an arts, culture and education consultant.

He was the chairman of several organisations in Zimbabwe that deal notably with cultural diversity, publishing, performing arts and intangible heritage.

He facilitated numerous theatre for development and theatre skills workshops in Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Swaziland and Cameroon.

The legendary playwright was involved in cultural policy formulation and evaluation in Africa and he contributed immensely to the evaluation of cultural policies in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and Mauritius and was a founding member of the Observatory on cultural Policies in Africa.

Chifunyise was once the Permanent Secretary for the then Education, Sport and Culture ministry in Zimbabwe.

He played a prominent role in the development of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Arts and Culture Festivals from 1994 to 2000 and chaired the Southern African Film Festival (1990 - 1996) and also facilitated the review and classification of the culture sector and the formulation of the National Action Plan for the Culture Sector in Botswana in 2004 - 2008.

Chifunyise wedded Phillipa Chidzurira on April 2, 2016 at St Anthony Church in Jerera, Zaka.

Source - zbc