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Artistic licence to kill

PERCY ZVOMUYA | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Nov 20 2009 11:54

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The playwright who was booed by his peers for challenging President Jacob Zuma on his statements at a public gathering of artists in Johannesburg this week has been invited to meet the president privately.

Tsepo wa Mamatu, a theatre director and writer based at Wits University, was the lone voice of dissent when he questioned Zuma's statement to 400 artists that film, TV and music are full of violence and amount to a misrepresentation of South African culture.

When Zuma fielded questions after his address at the Sandton Convention Centre on Tuesday, Wa Mamatu pointed out that "people have made statements that they would kill in your name and you have a police minister who has said 'shoot to kill'".

Wa Mamatu said it was rich of Zuma, whose signature battle cry on his way to the presidency was "Awu lethe umshini wami", to bemoan the fact that South Africa's widespread violence is expressed in art and entertainment media.

Shrugging off the noisy disapproval of his fellow artists -- and dismissing some of them as "merely entertainers" -- Wa Mamatu told the Mail & Guardian that it is the artist's duty to reflect what is going on around him. Instead he bemoaned the "missed opportunity" the rare arts community meeting with Zuma afforded to engage critically with power. "We shouldn't place ourselves in a situation in which we compromise our art," he said. "Why are we allowing ourselves to be contained by the politicians?"

Wa Mamatu also made it clear that he is not "anti-Zuma". "I would be the first to acknowledge the good things about Zuma -- his role in KwaZulu-Natal during the violence in the 1990s, his mediation skills in Burundi, his connection with working-class people.

"I'm not saying we shouldn't work with politicians," he said. "I'm saying I can't write a play about the ANC's manifesto and take it on a tour around the townships. Then I would have become an entertainer. I would have sold out."

Wa Mamatu's plays reflect his angle on our political life. These include Mbeki and other Nitemares, 100% Zulu Boy -- about former president Thabo Mbeki's attempts to prevent Zuma from achieving high office -- and Stormpie, which examines the failures of struggle matriarch Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.

Wa Mamatu's challenge to the president might have upset his peers, but Zuma's response was more broad-minded: unlike the droning multitudes, Wa Mamatu secured himself the promise of a tête-à-tête with Zuma.

CONTINUES BELOW

After the question session, Zuma's aides took his cellphone number. "I don't know what it means to get a call from the president," he said, with a fleeting sense of trepidation.

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Artistic licence to kill

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