Zambia: Ministry unveils new arts council board

The 14-member board is made up of individuals from various private arts and culture organisations as well as government officials. NAC director Adrian Chipindi told Music In Africa that the chairperson and the deputy were not appointed but elected in the first council meeting.

Asked what criteria were used to appoint the members, Chipindi said: “The NAC Act provides for who can be on the board as follows: one representative from the affiliate National Arts Council, two members appointed by the minister of arts, director of arts and culture, one representative from the following line ministries: Education, Tourism and Information and Broadcasting Services.”

Board members:

• Agnes Yombwe – appointed by the minister of arts.
• Victor Makashi – appointed by the minister of arts.
• Boyd Chibale – chairman of the National Theatre Arts Association of Zambia.
• Patrick Salubusa – chairman of the National Association for Media Arts .
• Agnes Nyendwa – president of the Zambia Women Writers Association.
• Danny Lwando – Zambia National Visual Arts Council.
• Norah Mumba – Zambia Popular Theatre Alliance.
• Irene S. Ngoma – Zambia Folk, Dance and Music Society.
• Patrick Samwimbila – Zambia Arts Adjudicators Panel.
• Mweembe Chulu – Zambia Association of Musicians.
• Liya Nawa Mutale – permanent secretary at the Ministry of Tourism and Arts.
• Beaton S Kaluba – director of planning at the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting Services.
• Sunday Mwape – principal education officer at the Ministry of General Education.
• Thomas Mubita – director of the Department of Arts and Culture.

“In summary, our role is to develop, promote and regulate the arts including music,” Chipindi said. “We undertake specific intervention to improve the sector. This includes support to festivals, artists and arts organisations in training, funding, technical assistance and other resources.

“We coordinate and link artistic capacity with resources from the public and private sectors. We support and facilitate investment in the arts. For example, we work with copyright societies to ensure the interest of the arts are secured. We register arts organisations, we clear foreign artists and supervise arts association.”

Old board dissolved

Founded in 1994, the NAC, which began operating in 1996, has had to date two chairpersons – Mumba Kapumpa (1996-2003) and Mulenga Kapwepwe (2004-2017). Kapumpa, who contributed to the establishment of the Ngoma Music Awards, was pressured to resign while his successor had her position dissolved by the Ministry of Arts and Tourism following a raging debate by artists who said she had “overstayed” her welcome at the helm of the NAC.

“For a long time, we as artists have been calling for the stepping down of Mulenga Kapwepwe many years ago even during Michael Kaingu’s reign as minister of community development,” veteran musician and former Zambia Association of Musicians (ZAM) chairperson Brian Shakarongo was quoted as saying.

Shakarongo said Mulenga capitalised on the government’s silence about her long term of office. “When Mulenga took over, she noticed that the Constitution was silent about the term of office. She took advantage of that. As a democrat, when you notice that your Constitution has loopholes, what you need to do as a leader is fix that loophole, not take advantage of it.”

Asked if the minister’s decision was influenced by the above complaints, Chipindi said: “First and foremost, it is within the minister’s mandate to dissolve and appoint a board. The term of office for the board initially came to an end in June 2017. This term was extended in view of the possibility to restructure the NAC. Plans to restructure were, however, reconsidered and the NAC Act was to be revised.”

Music In Africa spoke to Kapwepwe who said that during her term in office, the government had struggled to channel enough resources to the arts.

“The arts have never really received a national budget; the government didn’t have enough money to support the arts. The issue of budget was the biggest challenge for me,” she said.

Asked what she did to address the challenge, Kapwepwe, who served as chairperson of the second and third NAC councils, said: “We started negotiating with the government to introduce a non-tax incentive for artists and also asking them to appreciate the arts sector.”

Kapwepwe, who is the daughter of former Zambian vice-president Simon Kapwepwe, said it was difficult to tackle such challenges due to changes in the country’s political system.

“Change of government means you have to start over again,” she said. “You need to start lobbying and since I became the chairperson, the NAC has been moved 12 times under three different ministries and there was a time when it was scattered under 12 different ministries. It was once in the vice-president’s office, moved to local government, education and many others.

“When I became chairperson, the NAC was in the Ministry of Community Development. It then moved to the Ministry of Chiefs and Traditional Affairs. These were some of my challenging moments but we then lobbied to have it under the Ministry of Arts and Tourism where it is today.”