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ECONOMY-ZIMBABWE: ‘‘Basic Commodities Have Become Luxuries’’

Ignatius Banda

BULAWAYO, Jul 16 2008 (IPS) - Business has never been this bad, said Nomathemba Nkomo.

A few years ago, the 37-year-old businesswoman laid down projections for her business. Increasing the number of staff members was one pointer that she used as an indicator of success. She wanted to create employment for school leavers at a time when the country’s troubled economy is failing to absorb them into the formal sector.

Independent economists estimate that the Zimbabwean economy has shrunk by up to 70 percent since 2000 when President Robert Mugabe's supporters embarked on the violent expropriation of white-owned commercial farms.

‘‘I run two fleamarket stalls in what used to be one of the most lucrative business sites in the city. But it has increasingly become difficult to stay afloat. I have had to ask some of the young women who worked for me to stay home,’’ Nkomo told IPS.

While struggling, she remains one of a few women who have been able to soldier on during these trying times, even moving across borders to bring in goods from neighbouring countries.

‘‘Some have closed shop altogether and, as you can seen, some of the stalls are stocked with only a few clothing items. People cannot manage anymore,’’ Nkomo said.

Tabeth Muronza (33) has to wake up early each day and walk about 10 kilometres to a vegetable market. The present crisis makes the daily grind worse, leaving her fatigued.

The visibly tired mother of two admitted to IPS, ‘‘I have now taught myself to expect each day to be worse than the previous one’’.

In this city of more than two million people, she is one of many women who sell vegetables. Her sales point is outside a local beer hall. One tomato goes for up to 10 billion Zimbabwean dollars (about 0.25 euros).

Muronza purchases her wares from vegetable markets in the city centre. Few of these markets have remained after white farmers fled from veterans of the country’s war of liberation at the height of the farm invasions.

The once productive land now lies fallow in most of the southern parts of country, throwing the lives of vendors like Muronza into increased hardships with no source of income.

In the past, her earnings paid for basics like milk, bread and meat for her two school-going children. Now, she laments, these basic commodities have become luxuries.

‘‘The kids now know we cannot afford these things though in the past they would demand a decent breakfast before they left for school,’’ she said.

This is another example of the plight of millions of children in a country where the World Food Programme (WFP) and other humanitarian agencies estimate that up to half the population will need food assistance this year alone. Muronza’s children now have to settle for cold leftovers from the previous night.

Health workers at local council clinics say they are seeing an increase in the number of children under five suffering from nutrition-rated illnesses. ‘‘There are a lot of underweight children coming here,’’ Greater Basuthu, a nurse working at a local government clinic, told IPS.

‘‘While we do have a feeding programme for children under five run by one of the few remaining non-governmental organisations in the city, (the onus remains on) mothers to feed their babies at home where they are supposed to get better food,’’ she said. However, especially single women without alternative sources of income are struggling to do this.

Their plight was worsened by a government ban on non-governmental organisations’ distribution of food aid before the disputed June 27 presidential run-off election.

Zimbabwean authorities accused these organisations of working with the political party the Movement for Democratic Change to cause disaffection among voters and turn them against Mugabe.

In the past Muronza purchased foreign currency, especially the South African rand, to try and beat the country’s rampant inflation rate where the price of food commodities increases almost daily.

But now, she explained, this has become virtually impossible as the local currency has been on free fall against major currencies, making it hard to buy foreign exchange from her earnings as a vegetable vendor.

‘‘The exchange rates are just crazy nowadays. Planning for anything has virtually become impossible. You cannot keep the Zimbabwean dollar, yet you still cannot purchase foreign currency,’’ she said.

Even for more astute aspiring entrepreneurs who make regular trips to Botswana and South Africa for their supplies, like Nomathemba Nkomo, the volatile Zimbabwean dollar has made planning a Herculean task: ‘‘We do not know when it will all end.’’.

The Zimbabwean authorities have touted the informal sector as that which would sustain the economy. But the country’s hyperinflation has destroyed all hope for millions here who are eking out livelihoods from self-employment initiatives.

Others are shunning employment, with more than 80 percent of the labour force jobless, according to the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU). ‘‘This is not at all surprising,’’ Howard Thuso, a labour expert with a local employment recruitment agency, told IPS.

‘‘In Zimbabwe the wages cannot keep up with inflation. The major motivator to work, becomes the wages themselves – not necessarily working conditions. If the wages are very poor, young people will simply stay home even if they have no other sources of income.’’