×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

Chibhamu fulfils promise to assist individuals and informal businesses post Zim Covid-19 lockdown

Opinion & Analysis
Dubai based business woman and aspiring president for Zimbabwe Democratic and Economic Freedom Party (ZDEFP) has finally delivered on her promise to assist individuals and informal businesses that were affected by the Covid-19 induced lockdown in Zimbabwe since last year and early this year in January and February. Chibhamu has already started assisting the affected […]

Dubai based business woman and aspiring president for Zimbabwe Democratic and Economic Freedom Party (ZDEFP) has finally delivered on her promise to assist individuals and informal businesses that were affected by the Covid-19 induced lockdown in Zimbabwe since last year and early this year in January and February.

Chibhamu has already started assisting the affected informal businesses and individuals with cash handouts to restock their goods, buy food and school fees for their children.

So far the cash donations have been successfully delivered to affected citizens in Harare, Bulawayo and Masvingo, and more cash and food handouts are still pouring in to assist more people affected across the country.

Speaking about the donation,Gogo Gondo, a 74 year old female vegetable vendor from Harare thanked Chibhamu for the cash assistance during this post Covid-19 enforced lockdown.

“I am really thankful to  Edith Chibhamu for remembering us during these hard times. At my age I didn’t even know when and how I was going to raise capital  and to go back to my table” she said

Chibhamu blamed the government for not coming up with a formidable strategy to protect informal businesses and vulnerable groups from job losses and food insecurity.

The abrupt announcement of the lockdown gave vendors little time to organise their savings and stock up on food. Vendors stated that they couldn’t afford to be home and not work, whilst going out to work exposed them to police violence and potentially contracting the virus.

Soon after African countries imposed lockdowns in an attempt to contain the spread of Covid-19, reports came out that showed populations feared hunger more than the virus itself. Yet, at the same time in Zimbabwe, the government made use of the opportunity to push through reforms of informal markets, making no attempt to warn or consult vendors whose stalls were bulldozed.

Various civil society actors demonstrated that both the pandemic and government measures were impacting heavily on informal workers, who lose their livelihoods due to lockdowns or slowing demand for their services and products in complex international value chains. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) also indicated that social protection systems would fail to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of most vulnerable groups, including informal workers.

While the government promised to avail an informal sector cushion fund to help vendors survive during the lockdown, no financial assistance has been received up to date.

The situation  worsened by the critical shortage of mealie meal. Stranded citizens were forced to queue for many hours in crowded places, whilst being exposed to the risk of infection, or buy mealie meal at high costs on the black market.

In Harare and other cities, the local authorities started taking advantage of the national lockdown to redesign the informal economy. Designated markets were revamped and illegal vending sites at ‘undesignated spaces’ demolished around the city. The operation was a directive from the Ministry of Local Government – supported by the police and Joint Operations Command – which stated that informal markets were potential hotspots for the spread of Covid-19.

However, the lockdown restrictions prevented any substantial mobilisation of vendors. The informal sector became a terrain of political struggles of control with serious consequences on the  livelihoods of the poor vendors.

Politics also interfered with the allocation of the cushion fund for informal workers as ambiguities pertaining how beneficiaries were going to be selected. The Minister of Finance  announced that the government would use an algorithm using people’s mobile money transactions data, but didn’t disclose how it was going to cater for some vendors who do not own mobile phones.

A rights advocacy group ZimRights also reported partisan and selective listing of potential beneficiaries in parts of Harare, and some citizens reported they had to show ZANU-PF membership cards when registering their names. “Much of the listing was done by ZANU-PF affiliate structures and those without party cards or outside the party registers would not benefit”, said Chiedza.

The Zimbabwe NGO Forum reported that ZANU-PF supporters were responsible for the screening of beneficiaries and those who were not aligned to the party were not included or deleted from the list.

Cases of partisan aid distribution are not new in Zimbabwe, often having been used by ZANU-PF to gain political mileage. As such, many vendors were not able to access this cushion fund assistance. The delay in the payment of the government support means that most vendors were now living off the savings.

Edith Chibhamu is a Dubai based business woman, human rights activist and aspiring president for Zimbabwe Democratic and Economic Freedom Party (ZDEFP). She can be contacted on her Instagram: @official-queendee