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Villagers resort to barter trade

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SEVERAL villagers in Chirumanzu’s Ward 7 in the Midlands province have resorted to bartering maize for basic household goods such as sugar, flour and cooking oil.

SEVERAL villagers in Chirumanzu’s Ward 7 in the Midlands province have resorted to bartering maize for basic household goods such as sugar, flour and cooking oil as they cannot afford prices of these commodities.

STEPHEN CHADENGA

Villagers are exchanging a 20-litre bucket of maize for a 2kg packet of sugar from urbanites in the nearby mining town of Mashava and Masvingo, who are cashing in on their desperate plight.

A villager, Constance Mariko, said they had no access to cash hence the use of maize as a form of payment.

“People from surrounding towns come with various commodities that we need on a daily basis, but as things stand, cash is hard to come by here, so we use maize to get sugar, salt and cooking oil,” said Mariko.

A worker at the nearby asbestos Mashaba Mine, Durban Dube, said he goes to the village with basics and exchanges them for maize before reselling the grain for a profit.

Dube said he was surviving on this business as Mashava Mine has failed to pay workers over the years.

“What I do is just look for a little capital to buy basic commodities. When I go to the villages, I exchange a 2kg packet of sugar for a 20 litre bucket of maize,” he said.