MUTARE– Blessing Chitope (35) spent the better part of Sunday 19 April, preparing ‘his’ commuter omnibus for work. He scrubbed, waxed and polished the Toyota hiace, imported from Japan, in anticipation of a return to normal life.
But nothing has been normal for the father of three, in the last three weeks, since government announced a 21 day lockdown period to curb the spread of Coronavirus (COVID-19). Public transport has been halted rendering him temporarily jobless.
Chitope is employed on commission as a driver but cannot be on the roads as only Zimbabwe United Passengers Company (ZUPCO) buses are allowed to operate under Statutory Instrument SI 2020- 083 Public Health COVID-19 Prevention, Containment and Treatment) (National Lockdown) Order, 2020.
He literally earns from what he collects daily on the highway, as he ferries passengers to Mutare’s Central Business District from Dangamvura, a local high density suburb.
“I am gutted by the decision to extend the lockdown because they are condemning my family to hunger. I have struggled to get through these past three weeks because we consume what we earn on a daily basis,” said Chitope.
There is little hope for targeted fiscal policy, economic measures and guarantee schemes to blunt economic fallout from the pandemic, as social protection measures adopted by government are currently insufficient.
Regional peers like South Africa have unveiled fiscal measures including cutting interest rate from 6.25% to 5.25%, setting a US$56.27 million fund to support small businesses during the outbreak. Other African nations have unveiled blueprints to boost the economic activities and support affected businesses in order to mitigate job cuts.
Locally such expectations are lofty targets that even those who should advocate for them are silent because government has no capacity, according to a captain of industry who requested to have his identity withheld.
“We know what the industry needs, we know that the commuter operators are hard hit, some small businesses may not recover, yet for us to expect government to bail out these small business operators is just to day dream.
“This is a broke government, they have misplaced priorities and we cannot expect them to issue bails outs for small businesses when they have failed to come up with policies to ring fence and stimulate local productivity,” said an industrialist who requested anonymity.
Here, government announced a ZWL$200 million social protection to help one million vulnerable households, a fund grossly inadequate to shield an estimated 5.5 million food insecure Zimbabweans according to World Food Program.
Chitope says he has already fallen into that group of food insecure people as he has no means to feed his family, as long as the lockdown is still in place.
“We have run out of food, we have decided as parents with my wife to only have one meal a day so that at least our children can be fed but our food will soon run out and I don’t know how we are going to last two weeks.
“If we had a choice I would be on the street braving the virus because I have not seen it, but hunger is something that I know, it’s there already in my house and it’s not welcome,” he said.
A report by the African Union paints a bleak picture for African economies, a tide which can only be stemmed by targeted fiscal and social protection, increased public spending and policy interventions by governments.
Declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020, COVID-19 has become a global emergency, given its impact (which the reports says will only get worse) on the entire world population and the economy.
On the domestic front local manufacturing already forecasted to plunge by 27% according to the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) will further decline, as will the tourism sector buoyant after recording 2.9 million arrivals last year.
Local supply chain disruption, will also put pressure on informal and small scale traders who rely on imports from China and the region, compounding the effect of closure of vending markets on local transporters.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has hit almost all African countries and appears poised to worsen dramatically…the enforcement of travel and social restrictions in many African countries are the main causes of the negative growth.
“Exports and imports of African countries are projected to drop by at least 35% from the level reached in 2019. Thus, the loss in value is estimated at around 270 billion US dollars.
“Overall Africa could lose up to 20 to 30% of its fiscal revenue, which is estimated at 500 billion in 2019…” read part of the report.
For him and others surviving on subsistence, such revenue losses will be felt more intimately than the remoteness of figures presented in charts can ever convey.
With travel restrictions still in place, Chitope will now wax and polish his kombi just to keep it clean as he waits for the end of the lockdown that has condemned him to further impoverishment.
“My routine before the virus struck was that by 4 am I will be already on the road and usually at this early hour it is vendors and traders that I will be ferrying. The market is closed businesses are closed we have nowhere to go,” said Chitope.
