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Before closing the borders, 31-year-old Michel earned a modest income by buying clothes and electronics in South Africa and reselling them on the Zimbabwe border in exchange for profits. But when the pandemic closed most of the traffic between the two countries, he said his income had dried up and he had to try “other means of earning a living.”
Thousands of other cross-border traders in southern Africa face the same dilemma. Over the decades, this informal commercial network has provided ongoing work for people on the border lands in the area, mostly women. The United Nations estimates that the industry accounts for 40% of the $ 17 billion trade market among the 16 countries of the South African Development Community. But the pandemic has thrown up this vital economic pillar for communities with limited job opportunities and limited access to COVID-19 vaccines, sparking an endless financial downturn.
Nearly 70% of Zimbabwean traders are women, according to the UN, and have had to find other sources of money. Some have tried to buy and sell goods internally, with less profit. Some have joined smugglers who cross the border to move products, taking part of the revenue. Some, like Michele, have started selling sex, boarding and companionship to truck drivers stuck for weeks due to delivery delays in the village, obstacles to COVID forecasts, and confusion over changes in government policies.
A truck driver has been with Michel at his home in Beitbridge, Zimbabwe, for two weeks, waiting for permission to return the goods to the road, to the Democratic Republic of Congo, in a 15-hour car. She prepares meals and a warm bath every day.
“This is life, what can we do?” said Michel, who asked for partial anonymity because he did not want to disclose his current employment status. “I don’t want to think about progress. I’m working with what I have right now. ‘
Beitbridge, a truck site with an occupied port along the Limpopo River, and other border towns have long offered opportunities for upward mobility through a bustling transnational network of transnationals. infusion The South African currency, the randa, whose value has been more stable than the Zimbabwean dollar has been weakened by years of hyperinflation. But because this trade network is limited, the economic engine of these communities is in jeopardy.
“The virus and the resulting blockade occurred so quickly that women did not have enough time to prepare for economic consequences,” said Ernest Chirume, a researcher and member of the Catholic University of Zimbabwe’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, and wrote a paper. paper About the effects of COVID-19 on informal traders.
Before closing the borders, 40-year-old Marian Siziba bought large appliances from South Africa, such as refrigerators, four-plate stoves and solar panels, in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city, to resell to small shops in the city center. For months, he was able to deal with his service by selling foreign currency and making small loans, providing payments to customers with ongoing debts. Lately, however, many of his clients have been unable to meet their quota.
Prior to the coronavirus, “we were already accustomed to economic hardship,” he said. “It’s only worse now that we can’t work.”
Fadzai Nyamande-Pangeti, a spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration in Zimbabwe, said the pandemic had hit informal cross-border trade harder than other sectors. But in the absence of government relief, the financial setbacks that seemed temporary to Michele, Siziba and other cross-border traders now feel unlimited.
The challenges of transportation have exacerbated inequalities in wealth. Whether or not people have the resources to deal with borderline restrictions.
Nyasha Chakanyuka runs a well-known clothing store in Bulaway and said the road closures did not hinder her sale because she had long relied on air travel, most of the shopkeepers who spoke to BuzzFeed News said they could not afford it. In fact, the situation has allowed him to expand his business: he has been buying bulk inventory in other countries and selling goods to traders who cannot leave Zimbabwe.
Others have turned to carriers who cross the land border illegally. “You can give it to someone you trust to buy goods for you in South Africa, but that requires extra confidence because the risks are obvious,” Siziba said.
Those who cannot afford to move their goods to others have had to find other ways while waiting to return to their usual work.
Adapting to the new situation, Getrude Mwale, a Bulawayo merchant and mother of five children, began selling clothes at the door of her home, even though the business was so slow that it took her a year to clean up the inventory. to clean within a month.
“Selling from home means you’re only selling to people who know you from the neighborhood,” Mwal said. “It hasn’t been easy.”
Prior to the pandemic, Sarudzai, 33, who asked for partial anonymity to maintain his private employment status, traveled to Malawi to buy children’s clothing at a flea market in Masvingo, Zimbabwe, each earning the equivalent of thousands of US dollars. in.
When the pandemic hit, he suddenly had a pile of shirts, pants and socks at home, but he didn’t sell them to anyone. With his business at a standstill, he decided to move to Beitbridge.
He sells soda, chips and soft drinks, but now comes from a transactional relationship that sells sex and friendship in a one-bedroom wooden house that rents a large portion of his income. Now she earns enough money to return her two children to school in Masvingo, and they stay there, almost 200 kilometers from their mother.
“I always knew truckers had money; that’s why I did it here,” he said.
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