Police censor script and ban new play about AIDs

By Tererai Karimakwenda
June 22, 2007

Just days after banning Amakhosi Theatre’s play The Good President, police have ordered the producers of a play about AIDs to cancel the opening scheduled for Friday. Titled “Everyday Soldier”, the play was directed by Cont Mhlanga, whose case over The Good President was heard in the High Court last Friday. He was denied permission to continue its run and his lawyers plan to return to the High Court focusing on police objections to the script.

The play about AIDs came to police attention when they found the fliers distributed by the writer Raisdon Baya and producer Joshua Nyabingi. This time the police asked the writer to bring a letter asking for permission to run the play starting Friday. When Baya complied, they also asked for a copy of the script. He brought them one, and they proceeded to underline many lines in red, demanding that they be taken out of the script because they contravened the Public order and Security Act. One of the lines said simply: “Strange things happen in this country.” Mhlanga disgreed with the censorship, saying the police cannot censor facts.

With 2 plays that he directed now banned in the same month, Mhlanga expressed concern about the future of theatre in Zimbabwe. He asked: “Where have you ever heard of the police censoring scripts. Pretty soon playwrights will be jobless.”

Mhlanga explained that theatre is a reflection of what is going on in any society, and for this reason it cannot be censored. He said some of lines that the police objected were inspired by events that actually took place in Zimbabwe. In the new play one of the characters asks: “What type of head of state celebrates violence?” The police objected to that, saying it undermines the authority of the president. There is also a scene where the police use brute force to disperse a crowd. Mhlanga said these things happen in Zimbabwe, and art imitates life.