Initially, the four-year-old festival had been booked for the end of April, but was this year moved back to June because of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair. In the previous years organisers were told the music show posed a security threat since police at the Bulawayo Showgrounds would be assigned to “protecting” the president at the trade fair.The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority also cancelled the Ringo Madlingozi show at the last minute after it was said that the Bulawayo crowd was unfriendly to the Mugabe regime and there would be a likelihood of a violent outburst.
Radio Dialogue’s Sharon Sithole said: “We had moved the festival from April as it coincided with the Trade Fair period. In the past we had problems as the police at sometime refused to clear the show citing that they were understaffed.We moved the show to June, but now there is the presidential run-off then. There is no telling with the run-off because the counting might go on for weeks so we have pencilled in the show for August,” she added.In 2006 the main act of the show, DJ Cleo, ended up on the wanted list of the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) after he made fun of the then President Robert Mugabe on a radio show in South Africa.Last year the launch party of the festival was cancelled after the Zimbabwe Republic Police refused to give the organisers a clearance certificate.
Â