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ZIMBABWE: Traders Are Now Importing Basic Foodstuffs

Ignatius Banda

BULAWAYO, Aug 15 2007 (IPS) - Sithabile Khuzwayo is one of many women who bring groceries and clothing from across the borders of neighbouring Botswana and South Africa to sell at the flourishing flea markets of Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo.

She told IPS that the hostility of Botswana’s locals to Zimbabwean traders has made buying wares in Botswana risky. ‘‘Before the problems began in Zimbabwe, we could move around without attracting any trouble, but now we have become targets. Some traders are mugged and their goods taken by Batswana,’’ she said.

The 30-year-old Khuzwayo complains that ‘‘the exchange rates are so volatile it has become difficult to price my wares to at least show a bit of profit’’.

The city’s markets have become centres of trade and finance where cross-border traders sell their wares and also source foreign exchange. For many residents struggling in a harsh economic environment amid growing shortages of basic commodities, cross-border traders have become the only suppliers of food.

Apart from groceries, cheap clothing from Botswana – originally imported from China – is the other essential product being sold in Bulawayo’s flea markets.

The dire economic circumstances have attracted thousands of women to informal trade in Bulawayo, a city of more than two million people. Recently even professionals like teachers and nurses have joined in to keep head above water.

The scarcity of foreign currency in Zimbabwe has meant that these small enterprises operate below capacity. It has forced cross-border traders to turn to the thriving illegal parallel market.

At the Plumtree border post, where thousands of Zimbabweans cross into Botswana each week, traders say it is becoming increasingly difficult to move goods. Groceries are now in short supply after a government decree forced retailers to slash prices by half. This has left supermarket shelves empty.

There was panic last month when the ZANU-PF government announced it was banning the importation of groceries from neighbouring countries as part of its price blitz against retailers. Without explanation, the government accused traders of fuelling the shortages of scarce basic commodities.

The authorities reversed the directive after a public outcry. The selling of commodities such as cooking oil, maize meal, shoes and clothing from Botswana in the streets of Bulawayo shows that informal cross-border trade continues despite the hardships faced by the thousands of women who have found a lifeline in this sector.

Traders point to the high import tariffs charged by Zimbabwean customs as one of the reasons for bringing limited volumes of goods into the country.

‘‘I have been asked to fork out money at customs which was almost equivalent to the goods I purchased in Botswana. This does not make any business sense as I have to make something from these trips,’’ 27-year-old Portia Zuze told IPS at the Plumtree border post, about 100 km south of Bulawayo.

She said this is not the only challenge she has run up against. ‘‘Transport is hell here. Once I took the cheap Bulawayo-Francistown train. But once you get to the Bulawayo train station, it is a hassle to get your goods released by the customs officials.’’

Zuze added that there have been reports of women jumping off the Francistown-Bulawayo train once they get to Plumtree, in an attempt to escape paying the import duties.

‘‘There are instances where one customs official just waves you through while another one asks you to pay duty. We do not know what is going on,” Zuze told IPS.

Zimbabwe and Botswana have signed a bilateral agreement on the avoidance of double taxation as part of what Zimbabwe sees as a move to bolster trade across the borders. However, these stories show that Zimbabwean authorities are still making life difficult for small-scale cross-border traders.

The continued economic instability in Zimbabwe has deprived informal cross-border traders of opportunities for growth.

In 1997, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) set up a fund to assist small cross-border traders via its investment promotion and private sector development desk. There has been little participation by Zimbabwe in the initiative.

Mavis Jubane of the Zimbabwe Informal Traders Association says not many people have heard about the COMESA initiative.

‘‘Many women do not set targets for possible expansion, being happy to make trips that will make just enough to feed their families because they are failing to secure enough foreign currency,’’ Jubane told IPS.