‘Cats and Misha play’: Zimbabwe GoV’t Workers Moonlight as street sellers | News of poverty and development

Harare, Zimbabwe – Every morning, Dumisani Ngara* gets up at dawn to catch a bus at 6:30 in the morning to work at the Ministry of National Housing and Social ADPLICATIONS of Zimbabwe. The bus that provides the Government is free of charge for civil servants in Harare, and at a monthly salary of $ 250 is trying to save every Cen Cen.

Once at work, ngara – neatly dressed in a suit and tie – ensures that the files of the day are all right before the office opens at 8:30 in the morning. Between paperwork and meetings, he takes up breaks. At 1:00 pm, it opens a lunch box full of rice and meat he prepared at home.

“Most of us do the best I can here. It’s a profession I love. He comes with the safety of work,” said the 48-year-old husband and father of three.

But by 5 pm, as the end of the work day arrives, instead of heading home, Ngara rushes to the toilet at the pub over the street, where he moves to tracksuit and T -shirt before walking four blocks to join his oldest son on the roadway in the city center. From there they sell food to passers -by.

Ngara’s side crowd is a secret, because the workers of Zimbabwej government workers are limited from performing other jobs. But he says life is difficult for income with one source.

Ngara has been a government worker since 2010, but the assembly of the end areas is particularly difficult since 2019, when inflation fired up to 300 percent and the value of his salary eroded.

In order to afford the rent and other expenses, his family had to make a plan.

“My wife has fruits and vegetables at home, while I do the same after work here at CBD,” Ngara said, calling for a central business district.

‘Wages are pathetic’

The ngari are not alone.

On the streets of Harara, an increasing number of civil servants are turning to sale after they have completed their official business day.

Most work up to 9 or 22 hours, although Ngara moves home at about 8pm.

Many of those who address the sales business are teachers. Takavafira Zhou is the president of the Union of progressive teachers in Zimbabwe and says that teachers take over these additional, informal jobs because “salaries are pathetic” and “families cannot make an end to the end”.

People “do not pay school fees, feed their families, pay medical bills, pay rent,” he explained. “Therefore, government workers have designed survival methods.”

According to Zhou, “Most Government workers” now turned to a kind of sale, although there is no information to confirm this.

According to Zimstats, the government statistical agency, the informal sector in Zimbabwe contributes 18 percent of the gross domestic product in the country (GDP) and 20 percent of employment. But experts say that the government diminishes numbers and that most Zimbabweys work in the informal sector.

“This is a situation where you have a choice to starve or find survival methods, keeping in mind that the employer does not worry,” he added to Zhou, accusing the situation of offering unreasonable wages and do not improve working conditions for teachers.

Prior to November 2018, most of Zimbabwean civil servants, including teachers, earned a basic monthly salary of about $ 540.

However, since the economic fall in 2019, the government has ceased to offer complete payments in US dollars. The salaries are now divided into two portions: an American dollar component (USD) – $ 160 for most civil servants – and the amount in the local currency, which is less than $ 100 when converted.

‘We are in the jungle’

Late one afternoon, Ngara and his 21-year-old son spread the goods on the sidewalk in front of registered supermarkets and stores that sell the same goods as goods.

Last year, in an effort to fight hyperinflation, the government presented a new currency that supported gold, Cikand imposed stricter regulations on the use of a foreign currency. As a result, registered stores must trade a local currency or use official USD courses.

In the meantime, informal suppliers use Black market coursesWhich means that their products are cheaper for customers. They also trade a heavy USD currency. Most Zimbabweys take notes to USD instead of local accounts, because it is more stable and preferred to buy from suppliers.

“We do not accept the local currency,” explained Tariro Musekiwa, a street seller sitting on a cardboard box, who traded only at USD.

Currently, an official course is 1 to 26.4 zigs, while unofficial rate in the black market ranges from $ 36 to 40 ZID, which gives consumers more for less on the informal market.

People need to buy goods at a lower price, said Musekiwa, who sells soaps, cordial drinks and yogurts. Because the same products are more expensive in stores, he believes suppliers offer an important service.

Ngara agreed. “If you look at the streets, all the roadways and corners are filled with people who sell something. So I try to sell goods that are quickly sold at lower prices,” he said.

“We are in the jungle and that is the survival of the most beautiful.”

For registered store owners, however, the supplier’s influx was not a blessing.

Trymore Chirozva, a Food World manager, a supermarket salesman in Harare, expressed an outrage that suppliers sell similar products outside the roadway.

“Unlike before, when sellers were selling only fruits and vegetables, they have recently become mini-trains, which affects our job,” he said.

Harare -ov CBD has only five official outlets, which have less than 200 suppliers. Still, thousands of informal suppliers flow to the streets daily.

Ngara and many others admit that they operate without official permits, but they say they find ways around the rules. “Officers only require bribe or sometimes just pass [us by]. “

Big trade to close business

Chirozva believes that stores like its negatively affected because suppliers are not regulated as strictly as large companies.

Patience of the Maodza, an economist, believes that suppliers are used for regulatory gap.

“The government regulates the trade excessively but not suppliers, creating [an] An unfair business environment for registered subjects that are in accordance with the tax. “

In the last 12 months, Zimbabwe has witnessed the closing of the leading regional stores and the lines of clothing, most of all citing two reasons: the limitations of the USD use and the influx of suppliers who have taken over their job without government intervention.

One of the largest wholesale hardware companies of Zimbabwe, N Richards Group, closed two branches.

In an interview with Zimbabwe Parliament, Archie Dongo, director of the N Richards group, said the Government overloads those who already pay taxes.

“Reduce the level of taxation and tax heads, but collect that tax than as many players as possible. This will not have problems with fiscal mobilization in the economy; we actually believe that we will get more taxes in this way,” Dongo said.

OK Zimbabwe, the best supermarket salesman in the country, fought for the renovation of his branches over the past year – a challenge that is complex with the introduction of ZIG, which disturbed the chain supply and price structure. The seller closed five of his supermarkets in January.

The Cain Economist believes that government economic policy has played a “significant role” in the fight of the business sector.

“Politics resulted in a sudden reduction of a financial offer, performing significant pressure on companies, including main merchants like OK Zimbabwe and N Richard,” he said.

“These companies were forced to reduce in response to the challenging economic climate guided by tight fiscal conditions.”

‘Something tangible’

As traditional companies are struggling, so do traditional workers.

While many like Ngare accept side crowds, some have completely abandoned their government jobs.

Portia Mbano, 39, left the job of a civil servant to become a full -time saleswoman.

Initially, after working hours, she started as a small salesman. But soon she realized that “old and needed something tangible.”

“I realized I was losing a lot by spending time in offices [rather] but to take this as a full -time job, “she said.

He now sells various foods and small household items from the roadway to CBD.

Samuel Mangoma, Director of the Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISIS), an organization that has improved the rights of workers of the informal economy throughout Africa, said Al Jazeera that there was a “sudden climb” in the central Harare.

“This is the result of limited opportunities in the formal labor market,” he said, with many people, “finding refuge in the informal sector.”

However, it is frowned upon by suppliers operating in front of the stores, selling the same goods at cheaper prices.

“People try to survive in this very difficult economic environment. But we do not encourage our members to leave and occupy spaces in front of food products and large traders. We encourage our members to act from spaces where we do not create conflict with other business players,” he said.

However, on the streets, government workers continue to set up their informal stores, and Ngara said she was planning to continue until his family was stable enough to survive without her.

“I need a son to go to the university and at least have an estate for his family, so I need both jobs until that time,” Ngara said.

“Despite the challenges we face on the streets, including the Government through the Council and the Police trying to remove us with CBD, we continue the cat and mouse game – at least for now.”

*Name changed to protect privacy