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Feature: A day in the life of a tinker

Opinion & Analysis
Winter in Zimbabwe this year has been unusually brutal. As he trudges through the unforgiving weather, an old dirty small bag hangs on his back.

BY ADMIRE JAMU-MLAMBO A CHILLY wind gust blasts his face, driving tears from his eyes, as he braves the harsh wintry morning.

His fingers are numb from the cold.

Winter in Zimbabwe this year has been unusually brutal. As he trudges through the unforgiving weather, an old dirty small bag hangs on his back.

Despite the harsh weather conditions, he has little to no option — he simply has to press on and earn a living.

Such is the life for 42-year-old Nathan Machoba of St Mary’s in Chitungwiza, a dormitory town about 30km south-east of Harare.

Machoba is self-employed as a tinker, a veteran of the business for 30 years. Throughout the three decades, he has eked a living swinging from one street to another, and from house-to-house mending pots, pans, plates, cups and other utensils for a small fee, but enough to fend for himself, his wife and three children.

It has been a long journey for Machoba, who was introduced to the trade by his later father, Fambai, three decades ago at the age of 12.

He fondly remembers the genesis of the journey that has defined who he has become.

The year was 1992, and he was in Grade 6 at Chitungwiza’s Tangenhamo Primary School. He would watch his father work through the trade he loved and often times, when Fambai stepped out, he would sneak into the house to grab the toolbox.

“I would take my father’s toolbox and repair our neighbours’ household utensils,” Machoba, a tenant using three rooms and paying US$90 a month in rentals, reminisces.

“Given these harsh economic conditions, I feel I’m blessed. The income I earn from my business helps me pay for accommodation and food. I also budget school fees for my daughters. I walk around St Mary’s and Zengeza 1-5 in a single day. I have many customers who want to have their household utensils repaired and normally, I charge in US dollars. On a good day, I sometimes take home about US$30. I have managed to buy a four-plate stove, refrigerator, kitchen unit and basically all the household furniture,” he says with a smile on his face.

Machoba is now popularly known as Mudhara weSimbi, a name he got because he moves around carrying metals for use in his trade.

Sometimes he travels as far as 10km on foot to areas such as Seke, another Chitungwiza high-density suburb, as he mends household utensils along the way.

He prefers walking to boarding public or private transport, saying it enables him to get more customers.

Catherine Nyamayaro (48), who resides in Zengeza 5 and has known Machoba for close to 20 years, gives a good account of him as a very honest man who does his work wholeheartedly.

“I got to know Machoba after being referred by a friend. I used to have my kitchen utensils repaired by anyone into the trade, but they never lasted longer. From the day I engaged his services, all my utensils are always in good condition,” she says.

Although Machoba is a household name, the town council police occasionally give him hell for illegally operating without a licence, and he has been arrested many times.

A non-food hawker’s licence costs US$138 or the local currency equivalent per year.

“My biggest challenge as an informal trader has been the council police officials who arrest us for operating illegally and we end up paying fines,” he said.

“My other challenge is business operational costs. I need to buy carbite stone which I get for US$3,50 per kilogramme and brazing wire for soldering which costs US$1,50.”

Municipality spokesperson Lovermore Meya says: “They should get hawker’s licences to avoid arrest. So, those who are being arrested for not having valid street vendors’ licences are violating the Hawkers and Street Vendors by-laws. The penalty is US$23 or (the Zimbabwe dollar) equivalent.”

Informal traders representative organisation Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (Viset) states that its role is to assist informal traders.

Says Viset executive director Samuel Wadzai: “Our organisation assists informal traders who would have been arrested by the police or municipality officers, whether they are part of our membership or not, but we urge them to be registered members.”

Despite Machoba spending most of his life in Chitungwiza, he is also a well-organised man who has prepared his life very well in preparation of old age or just in case of death.

“As a man with rural connections, I have managed to build a four-roomed house and a thatched round kitchen in my Gutu rural home,” he says.

“I also own some cattle, goats and sheep. Now my main wish is to install a biogas digester at my rural homestead and then I will leave all this and be a peasant farmer or take a rest.”

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