The Board Management and Staff of the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe would like to express sadness and deep sorrow following the untimely death of former Murewa Culture Centre Manager Mr Cuthbert Kuchi Maziwa (67).

Nicholas Moyo, Director, National Arts Council of Zimbabwe.

Maziwa, died in Harare yesterday after a short illness. During his career with NACZ Maziwa held various roles and was at the forefront of turning around the Murehwa Arts Culture Centre into renowned art and cultural heritage hub in Zimbabwe housing the Jerusarema Mbende which was proclaimed Inscribed on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008.

Cuthbert was born on the 9^th of October 1954 in Murewa and he founded the Rock and Roll outfit Eye Q in the mid-1970s with his schoolmate Herrington Nyamariva on bass, Phineas Marumahoko on drums and vocals and Solomon Chiweshe on keyboard and vocals. With Cuthbert on lead guitar, the group became very popular after the release of “Please the Nation,” a political song that became a hot-selling single. The group went on to release other notable seven singles including “I am selfish”, “lonely”, “Widow” and “Making a life out of Music”

Maziwa ventured into Arts administration when on the 1^st of September 1994 he joined the NACZ as the Projects and Training Officer at Head Office.  In June 2007 he was appointed the Principal Programmes Officer and in May 2010 he was appointed the Manager for Murewa Culture Centre a position he held until his retirement on the 31^st of December in 2016.

Maziwa was an accomplished artist Among his many achievements, Maziwa is famed for founding the globally profiled music arts organization, Music Crossroads which has now been turned into a full-time music and Arts school. He also spent a greater part of his life coordinating and curating the Mashonaland East Cultural Arts Festival (MECUFA) which ran concurrently with Jerusarema Mbende Festival. 

Maziwa possessed natural expertise in creating, developing and curating arts ideas into living creative testimonies and his name will for years resonate with the Zimbabwean arts sector as he was an active participant for decades as a multi-genre musician, artist, singer,  acclaimed guitarist, accomplished arts administrator and a veteran Arts and Culture Festival Curator. 

After retiring from the NACZ Maziwa founded the National Training and Conference of Arts in Zimbabwe (NATCAZ) a non-governmental organization dedicated to the growth of arts and cultural industries in Zimbabwe which he led as its Executive Director. 

Cuthbert was a prolific and unstoppable creative whose fervent passion for the arts is remarkable. His great footprints in the Zimbabwe Cultural and Creative sector are undeletable as he thought out and curated many arts events in the country. 

NACZ will forever cherish Maziwa’s time in the different capacities that he served where he exhibited unparalleled leadership and creative capabilities which helped to shape the structure of the organisation and its programmes. 

The death of Cuthbert Maziwa has robbed the country of a true doyen of the music sector, a veteran arts and cultural practitioner as well as an accomplished cultural programs administrator and a multi-gifted curator of Arts festivals. 

May his Soul Rest in Peace.

Mourners are gathered at number 10 Oliver Road Waterfalls, Harare.