Keeping body and soul together
March 14th, 2011
All I ever dreamt of in my country was to finish school and find a job, but so elusive has been a job that today I am part of the 90 plus percent of people in the country who according to the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) are not employed.
As I go about my freelance work I meet my fellow Zimbabweans who work extra hard to get a meal; I am so encouraged by the “never say die attitude” of my compatriots as though it is written on their faces.
Somehow we always find a plan and, job or no job, we survive.
Some sell tomatoes, while others sell newspapers, the list of what people do is endless but the motive is one; to keep body and soul together.
This morning I talked to some vendors who said even though they would love to be formally employed they have to make do with what is available.
The women say from vending they can at least put food on the table and send their children to school.
Yet somehow the city of Harare regards these hard working women as law breakers. Scenes of women running away from the police in the streets of Harare with babies on their backs are as common as they are worrying.
“There is nothing for us to do yet the police arrest us, this is unfair because our livelihoods are from selling vegetables.”
As a freelance journalist I also am faced with the same problem. I am scared that when I carry out my work that like the women vendors I will be arrested. I can be arrested because I do not have the required accreditation. Like women vendors I somehow operate without a license.
