Zimbabwe ’s High-Risk Cross-Border Trade

COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions meant that many informal sector traders lost their jobs. Not eligible for compensation, some have turned to sex work. Credit: Marko Phiri/IPSBy Marko PhiriBulawayo, ZIMBABWE , Nov 4 2021 (IPS) Thirty-six-year-old Thandiwe Mtshali* watched helplessly as her informal cross-border trading (ICBT) enterprise came to a grinding halt when the Zimbabwean authorities closed the border with South Africa as part of global efforts to stem the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus. “That was last year, and I had no idea what to do next,” Mtshali told IPS. Before the lockdown, she made up to four trips each month to Musina and Johannesburg in neighbouring South Africa to buy goods ranging from clothes to electrical appliances for resale in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city. And by her account, the money was good. “I could rent a full house in the suburbs, and my long term plans have always been to build my own home,” she said. After months of being idle in Bulawayo, a colleague tipped her about what appeared to be an easy route out of her money troubles: truckers had not been banned from transporting goods between South Africa and Zimbabwe. As truckers got stuck at the Beitbridge border post for weeks waiting to get their consignments processed by port authorities, it presented a new venture for informal cross-border traders such as Mtshali: sex work. Today, Mtshali, who has two young children back in Bulawayo, rents a small shack in the borde...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Africa COVID-19 Featured Gender Gender Violence Headlines Health Human Rights Humanitarian Emergencies Inequity Labour Poverty & SDGs TerraViva United Nations Women's Health #BeitBridge #Covid19 #HIV/Aids Zimbabwe Source Type: news