The year 2012 has arrived. We are hopeful that it brings good tidings to the music fraternity. Music is a great weapon. It has been known to bring together former enemies and to establish strong cultural links between countries far more efficiently than any amount of diplomatic and military manoeuvring.

For instance, in the case of Bob Marley in Jamaica it was his music that brought rival political gangs to sign a peace treaty and both the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Edward Seaga, and the opposition leader, Michael Manley, used Marley's musical influence to gain votes for their respective parties.

In Zimbabwe, during Bishop Abel Muzorewa's shortlived Zimbabwe-Rhodesia regime, Thomas Mapfumo was used as a vote catcher because Muzorewa saw the importance of a popular musician in this respect.

Since then many a politician have realised that music has powerful effects and can be used as a vehicle for getting in touch with the people.

It is with this view in mind that governments must realise the amount of popular support musicians as a whole have as most of them tend to build a following. Governments therefore ought to give a lot of respect and material support to struggling musicians who undoubtedly through their creative and artistic minds know and understand the true feelings of the struggling masses at the grassroots level better than most politicians who only visit their constituencies during election time.

Oliver Mtukudzi's interviews with the Press during his visit to Europe and America in the past 10 years have given Zimbabwe good publicity and some of the Western media which had given Zimbabwe bad Press previously began to report favourably about the country. This good write-up was made possible through the efforts of one musician who does not have much tertiary education while diplomats and politicians with university degrees seemed to have failed to bring the Western media to see Zimbabwe in a different light.

Another popular musician in the United States, Stevie Wonder, who has been involved in the Black Civil Rights Movement of America over the years, forced the Reagan administration through his popularity to declare a day in January as a national holiday in honour of the late black civil rights leader, Martin Luther King Jnr.

He refused to let the DJs play his record "Happy Birthday" dedicated to Martin Luther King, until this declaration was made law. Thus Stevie Wonder's argument (that if white American citizens could be honoured this way by declaring them national heroes after their death, important black American citizens must be honoured the same way), made its way to the White House, America's supreme body. Again, this is a demonstration to show how an ordinary musician who did not reach high school could force high-ranking politicians into submission.

The foregoing account is given as a way of showing how Government support is essential for the struggling musicians of Zimbabwe. Needless to say, it is the Government which will benefit in the long run either by way of getting musicians to help them to promote Government policies, or simply by providing the youth with entertainment which is an essential psychological need, without which the youth are likely to remain idle or cause a revolution.

Both moral and material support from the Government are essential. If these are given it becomes easy for the musicians to organise themselves into a strong and viable industry. Again the Government will benefit from the income tax that will eventually be levied from this industry.

The Government could start by building free recording facilities throughout the country for all those unemployed young people with talent. Arrangements for bonding of those who make use of this free facility can be made. Once they have recorded and start to earn an income, they can be asked to pay back something towards their recordings.

Zimbabwe has the potential to raise millions of dollars from music alone if this industry is properly organised. There is also the possibility of large amounts of money being earned through record royalties and live performances by Zimbabwean musicians abroad. More so is the fact that Zimbabwe will be put on the world map in a more positive way.

For this industry to become more viable in the future, certain moves have to be made.The first move has to be made by the musicians themselves.

As already mentioned, musicians have to find ways of getting rid of exploitation by other musicians, by promoters, by equipment owners, by music pirates and by record companies. Musicians need to organise themselves into a strong union or a co-operative body. Experience has shown that individualism in this field does not pay. Musicians need to support each other, respect each other and help each other whenever difficult situations arise.

Promoters can take advantage of local artistes in the same way as record companies by paying the bands very little amounts of money for concerts while they (the promoters) enjoy the lion's share. For musicians to gain respectability, they need to take this profession seriously.

At the moment although the Government passed legislation on minimum wages for all employees including domestic servants, there is no legislation for musicians as they are not regarded as employed people in the eyes of the Government. Local promoters have been known to pay foreign artistes sums of money in excess of US$200 000 for an hour's performance while supporting local bands receive less than US$500.

The music industry is both a cultural and a business concern. Its problems need to be looked into by all Government facets including Trade and Commerce, Labour, Treasury, Tourism, Economic Planning, Culture and Public Commission.

Musicians are creative citizens and their social status up to this day is not given much respect by these ministries. Musicians have a right to Government concern as any other category of workers, but again this boils down to the need for the formation of a strong pressure group by the musicians themselves.

As there are no pension schemes of self-employed people (which is what musicians are) it is important that some scheme should be worked out where musicians can have social security benefits such as medical aid, financial support and other benefits enjoyed by all workers during periods of unemployment.

At the moment, most trading enterprises do not allow hire-purchase facilities to even those musicians with a high income. They usually have to go through a guarantor or someone who is "employed" at an established firm even if that someone earns considerably less than the musician.

It is only when musicians have organised themselves and with the support of central government that they will be able to tackle some of the pressing problems such as exploitation, lack of proper venues, poor quality of musical equipment, and unfair dismissal by club-owners and equipment owners.

For the affluent musician with his own equipment, some of these problems can be solved by simply doing his own thing independently from the record companies and the equipment owners, but the problems of proper venues, proper recording facilities, and finances for back-up repairs to the instruments and so on will always remain.

For this reason, the "independent" musician needs to team up with other musicians in order to win the struggle. It is with this in mind that the musicians through a united front need to look into the activities of record companies in order to negotiate better deals.

Most of the musicians I spoke to do not even know how many copies of their records/CDs are pressed and how many are sold yet they do not even get any royalties in advance. Every aspect of their recording business rests with the record companies. The musicians just have to have faith in the companies. This can be changed by musicians if they organise themselves as stated.

Musicians could also control the number of visiting international musicians since each time a popular foreign group tours the country, a lot of local bands suffer loss of earnings because a lot of their patrons would rather attend the performances by these visiting musicians. In 2011 alone, over 50 foreign bands came to perform in Zimbabwe.

For a country which is relatively small like Zimbabwe, such a control is necessary even though having international bands, once or twice a year, is a good idea as it encourages local musicians to compare themselves and aim for international standards of performance. Bands need managers and promoters in order to run an efficient business. In Zimbabwe today most musicians are poor business people yet very few bands have got personal managers or promoters.

A lot of groups have lost a lot of money through the lack good business skills. Even the most popular groups have found themselves playing in front of as few as 10 people due to lack of good promotion or a generally good sense of business acumen. For example, what is the logic behind organising an open-air gig during this rainy season and hope to get full attendance from patrons?

The biggest problem musicians face today is one of venues. There are not many places where musicians can play music to large audiences. The closure of the Book Cafe and Mannenberg at the end of last year was a big blow for many aspiring artistes.

African music is gaining increasing respectability in Europe and there seems to be no question now about its popularity in the years to come.

Now is the time for all good Zimbabwean bands to make their mark and sell their country to the rest of the world for the future is bright, but alas, charity begins at home. When the conditions for musicians have improved at home, they will also improve overseas.