The Zimbabwean
By Staff Reporter
Monday, 12 April 2010
BULAWAYO – The continued criminal persecution of artists illustrates that the country still has a long way to go in dealing with the issue of national healing, David Coltart, the Education, Sports, Arts and Culture Minister has said.
Coltart told The Zimbabwean that the recent arrest of Bulawayo based artist, Owen Maseko and Okay Machisa, the ZimRights director in Harare, for holding exhibitions showcasing the country’s gross human rights violations, was unfortunate at a time when the country was talking of national healing.
“Their arrest illustrates that there are major issues in our country which we need to deal with. It is unfortunate that he was treated in this way because criminal prosecutions will not heal our nation.
“This only goes to show that we have a long way to go in so far as national healing is concerned,†Coltart said in an interview.
Coltart added that only dialogue would deal with the issue of national healing.
Maseko, a resident artist at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo was arrested for putting up a solo exhibition showcasing the Gukurahundi disturbances.
The state alleged that Maseko’s painting were likely to cause hatred or engender feelings of hostility towards or cause contempt or ridicule to the President of insult the President in person or in respect of his office.
ZimRights also planned to have a photo exhibition entitled Reflections.
The purpose of the exhibition was to share photographs of the 2008 election period – including the violence of these elections and the economic hardships of these times – in order to remind Zimbabweans of where we have come from, and to prompt reflection on where we are going as a country.
However, later that day, police descended on the gallery and arrested Machisa and confiscated the pictures.
Zimrights last week said it plans to take the exhibition to rural areas.