Ndlovu, who is now based in South Africa, said musicians would remain poor as long as Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation maintained a monopoly as a national broadcaster.
“Musicians no longer make much money from record sales because of piracy. We now depend on shows and royalties that are determined by airplay hence the more stations we have, the better,” said Ndlovu who leads a group called Children of Nandi.
“We should have at least 20 stations. At the moment, we have too few radio stations which are heavily politicised and state-controlled.”He said the danger with relying solely on state radio was that “those who criticise the establishment would have their music ignored and would inevitably starve”.
He said the government must not seek to “control the way artists think” adding that lack of tolerance to divergent views was letting the country down.Ndlovu believes musicians in Bulawayo were also dealt a heavy blow by the relocation of Gallo Records (now Zimbabwe Music Corporation) to Harare.Ndlovu is putting up a recording studio in South Africa that he says would be a launch pad for upcoming artists.
Two years ago, he released a compilation of some of the songs he recorded with the Children of Nandi, entitled A Trip into the Past that contained tracks such as Release Mandela, Radio Africa and Dry Earth among others.
