Why running a festival or an event is so difficult in Zimbabwe
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AI Declaration: As we have stated on the show, we now use AI to help us find talking points. We are using those same talking points to help draft this newsletter. It is still edited and reviewed by a human.
Our Latest Episodes
The Pay Through Your Nose Episode
In this episode, Dan and Phil discuss the terrible tragedy of the Kariba Ferry, the ongoing InDrive wars between Harare City Council and e-hailing service users, Thomas Mapfumo beefing with his nephew, and why we're still going to have to go through the humiliation ritual of applying for visas.
The Gone From Home Episode
This episode of the podcast also explores the aftermath of Zimfest in the UK, the postponement of HIFA (which should have been happening as we speak), the mining of gold in someone's backyard, and Dan finally watched The Odyssey in full IMAX (as Nolan intended).
THE DEEP DIVE
HIFA was nine days out with no lineup, no venue, no sponsors
HIFA's failure to return is a sign of the event space in Zimbabwe
These are our opinions, not reporting. Nobody has published a funding explanation for the postponement, and HIFA hasn't given one.
Here is the timeline, and the timeline is the whole story.
In April, HIFA announced it was back. Themed "Up." Scheduled 3 to 9 August. Dates already pencilled for 2027 and 2028, a comedy series planned to tour monthly from June, and talk of turning HIFA into a year-round platform. This was not a soft return. This was a flagship announcing itself after eight years in the dark.
On 25 July, nine days out, the PR representative told NewsDay preparations were on course, and the full programme reveal would land on Thursday 30 July.
On Thursday 30 July, the exact day the programme was due, HIFA postponed.
No new date.
The statement said that "reviving a festival with its history, ambition and scale is a significant undertaking, and that more time was the responsible choice."
A festival does not discover it needs more time nine days out. They probably knew that long before. They may have been hoping for a miracle or have not planned appropriately.
You don't need inside information to work out what. Leading up to the festival, there were several concerning communication gaps — no lineup. No venue. No ticketing. No launch partners. That last one is the tell, and it's the one that should have had everybody's ears up in April.
HIFA at full size ran three or four music stages, a theatre programme, dance, poetry, comedy, satellite events and more. All of these had sponsors attached to them. Even the green rooms for artists and VIP tents were branded. That was a big financial windfall that allowed attendees to get a great deal (even though HIFA tickets were not cheap for Zimbabweans, they were cheap when pegged against global events offering the same experience and line-up).
Big international artists were flown in alongside local ones. HIFA was regularly counted among the biggest arts festivals on the continent, and it would not have been profitable without sponsors. Not "less profitable." Not profitable.
Dan shared a story of how he became an MC at HIFA in 2013. In that story, he revealed a tidbit about how thin the margins were for HIFA, even at their peak. In that year, HIFA experimented with putting a dedicated MC on every stage instead of one across the festival. Dan auditioned and got the fashion stage (a shocker to anyone who has seen him dress). There was no budget for this gig, but Dan would get full access to every part of HIFA for free. He took it, and thought it was a good deal — which it was. That's a festival at the peak of its reputation, unable to find a fee for a stage host.
When HIFA announced a return date with no partners attached, we can assume that they believed the brand would do the work. Announce the return, and sponsors come running. They obviously did not. Was it because HIFA is not as valuable as it once was? Was it because the brand was not returning with its original leadership team? Was it because even the sponsors that wished to hop on board did not offer enough to allow the festival to break even? In our experience, it was likely a combination of all the above.
Afro Nation starts selling next year's tickets the moment this year's ends; they do not announce the lineup. At this point, the brand and experience sell themselves. People attend for those; the lineup is just a bonus to convince potential attendees who were on the fence. In South Africa there's a major concert right now that has sold out its entire house and still doesn't have a title sponsor, and its problem is the luxury one: why spend on activations for tickets you've already sold? Though by the time you read this newsletter, that will have changed. But the point remains.
Zimbabwe doesn't work like that, and it makes putting together any form of an event incredibly difficult. Here, public interest does not reliably convert into sponsorship. We have both sat in meetings where the offer on the table was "we'll bring some giveaways for your attendees," or sponsorship is tied to a discount based on how much money you spend with the potential sponsor. There are major events in this country running right now with no cash sponsor at all, where the "mobility partner" gave them a car to collect people from the airport.
This is also in addition to the incredible upfront expenses and risks of running an event in Zimbabwe. Before you even begin selling tickets to an event with an international act, you are looking at spending close to US$6,000 in compliance and regulatory fees!
National Arts Council, ZIMRA, Censorship Board, Police Clearance, all need to be paid before you can even announce your event. This is also in an economy that is heavily cash-dependent and usually buys tickets close to the event or at the gate on the day. There is a reason why most local promoters have receding hairlines.
The other thing HIFA was probably banking on was trust, and trust doesn't transfer. The name on the poster mattered less than the name behind it. Manuel Bagorro built that festival and its relationships. Sponsors, artists and attendees trusted him and his vision, even if they did not know his name. If Manuel had announced a return, the money would have moved on the strength of that alone.
Running an event, a brand and motivating people to part with their hard-earned money is a complicated undertaking.
SHAMELESS PLUG
Dan and Phil are really good at running events and solving all the problems listed above. Get in touch if you need help solving them
Stories We Were Watching
Everything that made the run across both episodes, with the receipts.
| Zimbabweans and Africans Doing It Big |
Darren Motsi to Manchester City — reported and agreed, not completed
The Leicester academy attacker, sixteen, is reported to have chosen City over Liverpool and Arsenal. Capped by England at U15 and U16, which ties him to nothing — he remains eligible for Zimbabwe. No official City announcement has been located. Zimbabwe doesn't have a talent problem; it has a recruitment problem: every eighteen months another England-born, Zimbabwe-eligible teenager surfaces at a top-six academy, and ZIFA finds out from Twitter with the rest of us.
Attacking Football · Yahoo Sports · Transfermarkt · Chigwada precedent
Marvelous Nakamba joins Panetolikos
The Warriors captain, 32, has landed in the Greek Super League after 71 Premier League appearances and a season of barely any minutes at Hillsborough. The club's own site says the contract runs to June 2027; The Star and several Zimbabwean outlets say 2028. The real question is succession: name the next Zimbabwean holding midfielder operating at that level. If the name doesn't come quickly, that's the story.
Panetolikos · ZimLive · The Star · Soccer24
Put the designer on the poster
Nicole Nyawera reached the Top 24 at Miss Supranational 2026 in Poland. But the image that travelled was the national costume — the Bridal Veil Gown, built by Harare designer Jasper Mandizera of Ivhu Tribe, drawing on the Chimanimani falls that kept flowing through Cyclone Idai. Zimbabwe exports minerals and nurses. This was a week it exported an idea, and the person who made the idea is in Harare and reachable.
iHarare · Hwange Chronicles · Philstar, full results · Chronicle on Mandizera
The 4x400 boys already have their Beijing tickets
Dennis Hove, Thandazani Ndhlovu, Leeford Zuze and Gerren Muwishi ran 2:59.01 at the World Relays for a national record, finished fifth best country, and banked automatic qualification for the 2027 World Championships before the qualifying window even opened on 23 August. Meanwhile, the 100m standard is 9.95, and nobody in the country is within a tenth of it. Reported by the Herald and Chronicle only.
Transfer season, the Zimbabwean file
Jordan Zemura is at Watford on a season-long loan from Udinese — both clubs are Pozzo-owned, which is the actual mechanism. Tadiwa Chakuchichi, 17, of Scottland FC has Forest and Salzburg circling, but it is interest only: FIFA rules on international transfers of minors mean nobody can sign him until he turns 18 on 1 June 2027. And relegated Wolves are sitting on four Zimbabweans. That's not a coincidence; that's a scouting relationship.
TribalFootball · ZimLive · ESPN · Soccer24 · ZimEye
A ten-year-old from Westridge Primary podiumed at a world championship
Ayanda Ndlovu took third in the Boys Under-12 at the Champion of Champions World Championship in County Fermanagh — an invitation-only field of around 250 junior champions from more than 40 countries, where the 2026 places sold out in seventeen minutes. He led for 50 of his 54 holes. He was runner-up at the same event last year, aged nine. The third-place finish is NewsDay-reported.
Make your own ZDIB: the UN wants nominations
The Global Africa Business Initiative has opened public nominations for "Unstoppable Africans." Free, takes minutes, self-nomination explicitly allowed, closes 9 September. Five people picked across Energy, Digital Transformation, Trade, Creative Industries and Sports. If you've been sitting on the person who runs the studio, the solar business, the academy — file the paperwork.
| Main Topics |
Zimfest 2026: the festival is fine, the discourse is the story
Jah Prayzah headlined at Delapre Abbey, the Piano Republik stage carried DBN Gogo, Maphorisa and Young Stunna, and reports put the crowd somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000. Two of the headline sponsors sell remittances and diaspora insurance, which tells you what the festival actually monetises. And the biggest Zimfest story of the last two years wasn't a performance — it was a £3,000 fine that was never issued, a false claim that circulated and that thousands of people wanted to be true.
Nehanda Radio review · Korrine Sky retrospective · Lineup · The fine claim, debunked · Taptap Send
HIFA postponed with four days notice
Full breakdown above.
The Standard · Greedy South, full statement · NewsDay, 25 July "on track" · Financial Gazette
The Kariba ferry disasterThe Mbuya Nehanda, a passenger ferry operated by the state Rural Infrastructure Development Agency, capsized near Long Island on the afternoon of Tuesday 11 August in rough conditions. As of 1.30pm on Wednesday 12 August, the Zimbabwe Republic Police put the toll at 44 bodies recovered and 67 survivors. The Civil Protection Unit confirmed through ticket sales that 114 adult passengers and five crew were aboard, and said an unknown number of children below ticketing age may also have been on board and unaccounted for. The vessel's stated carrying capacity is 90. President Mnangagwa declared a national disaster and acknowledged serious deficiencies in Zimbabwe's maritime safety capabilities. Former minister Walter Mzembi has called for an investigation into the vessel's licensing, age, equipment and capacity. The number that matters is not 44. It is 90 against 119, plus an unknown number of children. The questions are narrow and specific: who cleared that sailing, who licensed that vessel, and what happens to them. The job of a show like ours is to still be asking in November. Al Jazeera · Nehanda Radio · NewsDay · AP via ABC · Mzembi |
Harare's e-hailing crackdown
Municipal officers have been posing as passengers, ordering rides through the app, and arresting the drivers who turn up. One driver told Nehanda Radio he was fined US$172. Meanwhile, the 15% Digital Services Withholding Tax took effect on 1 January, and ZIMRA guidance explicitly covers platform-based transport hailing. The state has worked out how to tax a trade it refuses to legalise. There is no e-hailing permit to apply for. Write the permit, keep the levy, let people work.
Nehanda Radio · Pindula, Mafume · NewsDay · NewZimbabwe · Technext, the 15% tax
Mapfumo sends the lawyers after his own nephew
Chimurenga Music Company issued a cease and desist dated 8 August stating that Kurai Makore has never been authorised to perform, record or stream anything from Thomas Mapfumo's catalogue, and demanding that media outlets retract descriptions of him as a designated successor. Mapfumo can own Mapfumo's songs; he cannot own a genre, and the notice is careful enough to only claim the first. The reason we're here is that Zimbabwe has never had functioning performance licensing. In a properly run market, Makore pays a blanket licence, the money reaches Mapfumo, and nobody writes a press release.
NewZimbabwe, the order · Nehanda Radio · NewZimbabwe opinion · ZimEye · Pindula, Makore
Eight men allegedly ran a gold mine under a Harare suburb for four years
A raid on a residential property in Marlborough, eight men arrested, and a shaft roughly ten metres deep on a residential stand. All eight are untried, and none are named. The Deputy Mines Minister says permits are never issued for residential areas. The councillor says residents first reported underground blasting in October 2024. The arrests aren't the story — the twenty-two months between the first phone call and the raid are the story.
263Chat · Mining Zimbabwe · Southerton Business Times · ZimEye, councillor claims
Infantino tried to sell a piece of the World Cup and nearly lost his job
FIFA proposed a subsidiary holding the commercial rights to the World Cup, valued around US$20bn, with 20% going to private investors to raise to US$4.2bn and a US$20m bonus per federation. UEFA threatened to boycott, CONCACAF rejected it, the AFC backed them — 96 of 211 members against. Infantino killed it on 31 July. CAF has 54 votes and used none of them, which is not deference; it's arithmetic: a confederation whose members need FIFA money to function cannot vote like one that sells its own broadcast rights.
NPR · Times Live · Al Jazeera · The National · Afrocritik · BusinessWorld
The Cricket World Cup is coming home, and Zimbabwe gets three venues
Harare Sports Club, Queens in Bulawayo, and the new Fale Mosi-oa-Tunya stadium in Victoria Falls, sharing the 2027 tournament with South Africa and Namibia — 4 October to 21 November, fourteen teams, 57 matches on the ICC's figure. The Victoria Falls ground is a 10,000-seater costing around US$12m, and its funding is genuinely contested across reports. Bulawayo mayor David Coltart calls it a misplaced budgetary priority while grounds outside Harare collapse.
| Movies & TV |
The Odyssey
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Must-watch as rated by both Dan and Phil |
Nolan adapted a 2,700-year-old poem into a nearly three-hour R-rated film shot entirely on IMAX cameras, and it is now his highest-grossing picture ever. Both hosts have seen it. Both loved it. The argument worth having is Lupita Nyong'o: NPR singled her Helen out as fiercely defiant, Den of Geek says her dual role carries the film's heaviest themes, while Emily Wilson — whose translation inspired the adaptation — called both parts hugely underwritten, and TIME went further. Either the loudest fight about a Black actress in a blockbuster this year was over a part that barely exists, or she got just enough screen time to make everyone argue about what she'd have done with more.
Variety · Hollywood Reporter · Deadline · NPR review · TIME review · Ms. Magazine · Den of Geek
Spider-Man: Brand New Day rewrites the record book
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"The best Spider-Man movie yet. Not just in the MCU, ever!" — Phil |
Biggest opening weekend ever in the US and Canada at US$360m, past Endgame. Crossed a billion worldwide in six days. Together with The Odyssey, it delivered the biggest collective box office weekend on record. Two films are carrying the entire theatrical industry, and there is no middle tier left — and neither of them is a Black-led tentpole. After Sinners set the bar for original work last year, the 2026 pipeline has quietly narrowed back to franchise and myth. Figures are live and moving daily.
| More Stories |
Egypt took Africa's startup crown, Kenya fell off a cliff
H1 2026: Egypt raised US$327m including debt, its highest ever share of continental funding — but almost all of it was one mega-round. Strip out the debt, and Nigeria leads on pure equity. Kenya took US$126m, down from US$227m a year earlier. South Africa couldn't clear US$100m. Zimbabwe is not in this conversation at any level.
Roki is trending again
A video circulating online appears to show the Urban Grooves pioneer in a confrontation with a woman demanding payment. Two outlets have run it, both working from the same phone clip. There is no police report, no comment from either party, and no independent confirmation of who she is. So park the clip and ask the harder question instead: why does an artist with a NAMA, a Song of the Year and a twenty-five-year catalogue have no publishing income, no royalty stream and no institution standing behind him? Then look up at an 81-year-old sending legal letters about his own back catalogue. Same disease, different stage.
| Tech Ombudsman |
Claude now watermarks everything it writes
EU AI Act transparency obligations kicked in on 2 August, and Anthropic now weaves an imperceptible watermark into generated text at the point of generation — worldwide, not just in the EU. It survives copy-paste. The company states plainly that finding a mark only shows content may have been processed by Claude, not that Claude wrote it. Nobody enforcing an academic misconduct policy is going to read that sentence. If you're a Zimbabwean student at a UK or South African university running your own essay through an AI for grammar, understand what you are now carrying in that document.
Anthropic help centre · TechCrunch · Fortune · Euronews · Forbes, the backlash
Darren Motsi joins Manchester City
Darren Motsi is an England youth international of Zimbabwean parentage who came through Leicester City’s academy at Seagrave. He was playing Premier League 2 football for Leicester’s under 21s while still fifteen, and Leicester’s double relegation from the Premier League to League One put their brightest academy prospects on the market. He turned sixteen on 11 July 2026. He is a left-footed attacker who plays off the right and cuts inside, and can operate centrally as a ten.
Attacking Football | Yahoo Sports | Transfermarkt profile | Chigwada precedent
Marvelous Nakamba joins Panetolikos
Marvelous Nakamba, 32, captains the Warriors. He left Bantu Rovers for Nancy in 2012, then built a career through Vitesse and Club Brugge before a big-money move to Aston Villa, followed by Luton Town and Sheffield Wednesday. He made 71 Premier League appearances across those English spells. He became a free agent when his short-term Hillsborough contract expired at the end of the season, having managed only a handful of minutes in the 2025/26 Championship campaign.
Panetolikos official | ZimLive | The Star | Soccer24
iHarare, costume | Hwange Chronicles, Top 24 | Philstar, full results | Chronicle on Mandizera
MAIN TALKING POINTS
The Kariba ferry disaster
The Mbuya Nehanda is a passenger ferry operated by the Rural Infrastructure Development Agency, a state agency. It serves rural communities moving between Kariba town and the Chalala fishing camps. Lake Kariba is the largest man-made lake in the world by volume, runs more than 200 kilometres long and reaches 40 kilometres across in places, which makes weather a live operational decision on every single crossing. On the afternoon of Tuesday 11 August the vessel capsized near Long Island in rough conditions. It is now reported as the deadliest maritime incident on record in Zimbabwe.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS
The Zimbabwe Republic Police put the toll at 44 bodies recovered and 67 survivors in an update issued at 1.30pm on Wednesday 12 August. Earlier figures were 15, then 37.
The Civil Protection Unit confirmed through registered ticket sales that there were 114 adult passengers and five crew on board. The vessel has a stated carrying capacity of 90.
The CPU also said an unknown number of children below ticketing age may have been aboard and unaccounted for.
Twenty four bodies, adults and children, were recovered from beneath the overturned hull on Wednesday morning by Joint Operations Command with Zimbabwe Defence Forces and ZRP sub-aqua teams.
President Mnangagwa declared a national disaster on Wednesday and acknowledged serious deficiencies in Zimbabwe’s maritime safety capabilities, ordering responsible agencies to address them.
Former minister Walter Mzembi has called for an investigation into the vessel’s licensing, age, equipment and passenger capacity, arguing it should not have been licensed to operate on Kariba at all.
MP Mutsa Murombedzi posted footage of the ferry setting off, with people on shore visibly concerned about the waves.
Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs Minister Mary Chombo said Kariba has never seen a disaster of this magnitude. Cyril Ramaphosa sent condolences. A memorial service has been held.
Al Jazeera | Nehanda Radio, toll and Mnangagwa | NewsDay | AP via ABC News | Mzembi call for probe
Harare's e-hailing crackdown
E-hailing has quietly become the default way to move around Harare for anyone who can afford it, filling the space left by ZUPCO and the kombi system. The regulatory framework was written for taxis, buses and kombis, and requires commercial red or yellow plates that ordinary e-hailing drivers cannot practically obtain. There is no e-hailing permit to apply for. Since 1 January, however, the state has been taxing the sector. That contradiction is now producing arrests.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS
Municipal officers have been posing as passengers, ordering InDrive rides through the app, and arresting the drivers who arrive.
One driver told Nehanda Radio he was fined US$172 after unknowingly accepting a trip requested by a council official, who arrested him for operating on InDrive with yellow plates.
Harare chief town planner and acting director of urban planning Samuel Nyabeze said on 10 August that the council has not been benefiting, that there are now too many operating in the city, and linked the drive to the 2025 to 2045 Master Plan.
Zimbabwe’s 15 percent Digital Services Withholding Tax took effect on 1 January 2026 under the 2026 Finance Act. ZIMRA guidance explicitly includes platform-based transport hailing services alongside Netflix, Spotify and Starlink.
Mayor Jacob Mafume conceded a legal lacuna, said the law has not caught up with the innovation, and confirmed council is drafting a policy to collect revenue from e-hailing operators, citing South Africa as a model.
The council transport department has begun stakeholder consultations on a regulatory framework. Conventional operators have complained that e-hailing provides the same service under different rules.
Former Warriors international Alois Bunjira publicly criticised the crackdown, arguing Zimbabwe should move with global transport trends.
Nehanda Radio, 13 Aug | Pindula, Mafume | NewsDay, consultations | NewZimbabwe | Technext, the 15 percent tax
GA-GA-GA
Mapfumo sends the lawyers after his own nephew
Thomas "Mukanya" Mapfumo, 81, is the architect of Chimurenga music. Kurai Makore, born 1988 in Highfield, is his nephew, leads a band called the Black Lions, has released three albums of his own, and has been widely described in the Zimbabwean press as Mapfumo’s heir after sharing a stage with him at what was billed as Mapfumo’s final UK show in August 2025. Mapfumo’s company has now moved to shut that description down in writing.
NewZimbabwe, the order | Nehanda Radio | NewZimbabwe opinion | ZimEye | Pindula, Makore
TECH OMBUDSMAN
Claude now watermarks everything it writes
The EU AI Act’s Article 50 transparency obligations took effect on 2 August 2026, requiring providers of generative AI systems to mark synthetic content in machine-readable ways. Non-compliance can trigger fines of up to 15 million euro or 3 percent of global annual turnover, whichever is higher. Anthropic signed the Article 50(2) Code of Practice on Transparency of AI-Generated Content and published a help centre article on 11 August setting out how Claude complies. Almost 200 companies have signed the code, including Microsoft, Google, Meta and OpenAI. Elon Musk’s xAI has not.
KEY DEVELOPMENTS
Claude models launched on or after 2 August 2026 weave an imperceptible watermark directly into generated text at the point of generation, inside the model’s token selection.
The mark applies worldwide, not only in the EU, across the API, Claude, Claude Code, Claude Cowork and Claude Tag, and when Claude is accessed through AWS, Google Cloud or Microsoft Foundry.
Generated files carry digitally signed provenance metadata using the C2PA open standard, on supported formats including .svg, .png and .jpg.
Because it is applied at model level, the watermark travels with copy and paste and may survive some editing. Heavy rewriting, paraphrase, translation or blending with human text can weaken or remove it.
Anthropic states directly that finding a mark only indicates content may have been processed by Claude. Someone who used it to proofread or translate their own writing could carry a watermark on work that is entirely theirs.
Older models are being retrofitted during the transition period the EU rules allow. Detection tooling is promised but has not shipped.
Reaction among paying users has been heavily negative, focused on their own work being marked and on the risk of misplaced accusations.
Anthropic help centre | TechCrunch | Fortune | Euronews | Forbes, the backlash
Grok Bot launches, and contradicts itself on day one
On 11 August xAI, which now presents itself as SpaceXAI, opened a beta of Grok Bot, its entry into the AI teammate category. The pitch is agents you can hand real work to. They run on cloud machines, sign into your applications using your credentials, and keep working after you close your laptop. It is distributed jointly with Cursor, and Elon Musk said within the hour that a wider rollout tied to the next model, Grok 4.6, would follow inside the same week.
VentureBeat | Interesting Engineering | Digital Applied, security analysis | xAI
Fellow comrades and non-receivers of vehicular gifts, the 2 Broke Twimbos are back once again to knock down global ignorance with the sledgehammer of podcasting! This week, the pair discuss the terrible tragedy of the Kariba Ferry, the ongoing InDrive wars between Harare City Council and e-hailing service users, Thomas Mapfumo beefing with his nephew, why we’re still going to have to go through the humiliation ritual of applying for visas, and how to tell if this was written by AI or not. Enjoy!