BY SINDISO DUBE RECENTLY IN LUPANE IN February 2016, arts doyen, Continueloving “Cont’ Mdladla Mhlanga announced his retirement from all things arts related and called it a day to an illustrious career which started in 1982.
Mhlanga afterwards moved to his rural home in Lupane where he said it was a way of starting a new lease of life without the pressures of the city, Bulawayo.
“I decided to rest from arts activities and by doing so, I have relocated to my rural area in Lupane. There is fresh air here and off the pressures of the big city. I am taking my time out and learning new things here,” said Mhlanga in an interview with the Standard Style in 2016.
When everyone thought he was done with the arts and rearing livestock and getting busy in the fields in Lupane, Mhlanga had other plans.
Just like the late national hero Oliver Mtukudzi put it, responding to a question why he was not retiring…
“I didn’t apply to be myself so one can’t retire from being himself. How do you run away or say I am done being myself?
“As artists, we have no term of office or a set retirement age. This is who we are. It’s not an employment career, it’s our life,” he said.
Exactly a year after announcing his retirement Mhlanga bounced back, launching the Pupu Tshangane carnival held at the Tshangane River, Emdwadweni Malunku and Pupu Villages in Lupane district.
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The fete is meant to celebrate cultural diversity, the arts oneness and, most importantly, to commemorate King Lobengula’s crossing of the Tshangane River for his battle against Allan Wilson patrol in 1893.
Besides putting Lupane on the map with the annual carnival which was held every June, Mhlanga insisted he was on retirement and was only helping the arts groups in Lupane.
Mhlanga, who was a shareholder at Fairtalk Communications which owns Skyz Metro FM and Breeze FM, made a public return to the arts when the communications company was granted a television license.
Mhlanga last year relocated back to the city to set up KeYona TV. For someone who had created content for ZBC TV for so many years, Mhlanga was passionate about creating content for his ‘own’ television channel, hence he had to come back and set up the channel.
After the launch of KeYona TV, Cont had promised to go back to his retirement corner in rural Lupane, alas, he didn’t live longer to see that day, he had waited all his life.
Speaking to the Standard Style, KeYona TV managing director Qhubani Moyo said Mhlanga was a perfectionist and died doing what he loved best, creating art.
“With KeYona TV we had reached a stage of production and had decided, which shows should be beamed for broadcast. Cont had come out of retirement so that he could be part of setting up KeYona TV. In his words he would say he came to stabilise production before he leaves for the rural areas and his contribution was very important, he really stabilised production and content creation,” Moyo said.
He was passionate about what was going to be our soapie and there is one called Mageshi which is about a young boy from the ghetto with a sporting dream. He had a lot of ability and he would come to work and start at 8am and finish at 6pm.”
Moyo revealed that Mhlanga’s illness started as a cold.
“His illness started as a cold, and then he took a week off. He got better and decided to come to work on a half day basis. Things turned bad and he was hospitalised and then the rest was history,” he said.
“Even on his deathbed, he (Mhalnga) emphasised on the importance of quality production. He said we should always thrive for quality because competition is stiff. Now that he is gone, we are left with a big task to fill the void he has left and no lie, it’s too big and impossible to fill. His shoes are too big to wear.”
KeYona TV, which loosely translates to the one, is set to be launched in December.
“It’s unfortunate that we had prepared to go on air in December and we have been running musicals as preparations for going live. The best way to honour him is to stick to the timelines, we are scheduled to launch in December and that should happen in his honour,” said Moyo.
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