Harare, Zimbabwe – Every morning, Dumisani Ngara* boarded a bus to work for the Ministry of National Housing and Social Amenities in Zimbabwe at 6 a.m. The government-provided bus is free for civil servants in Harare, and on his $250 monthly salary, he tries to save every cent he can.
Once at work, Ngara, who is dressed neatly in a suit and tie, ensures that all paperwork is in order before the office opens at 8:30 am. He takes breaks between meetings and paperwork. At 1pm, he opens a lunchbox packed with rice and meat he prepared at home.
The majority of our time is spent working to the best of our ability. I enjoy doing it. It comes also with job security”, said the 48-year-old husband and father of three.
However, by 5 o’clock in the evening, Ngara is rushing home to a restroom in the cross street, where he changed into sweatpants and a T-shirt, before walking four blocks to meet his oldest son at a pavement stall in the city center. Thereafter, they offer groceries to passing customers.
Ngara’s side hustle is a secret, as Zimbabwean government workers are restricted from holding other jobs. However, he claims that single-source income is difficult to come by.
Ngara has worked for the government since 2010 but has found it difficult to make ends meet since 2019 as his salary has fallen and his inflation rate has increased.
To afford rent and other expenses, his family had to make a plan.
Ngara compared the central business district to the fact that “my wife likes to sell fruits and vegetables at home while I do it after work here in the CBD.”
Salaries are “pathetic,” according to the statement.
Not on their own, the Ngaras.
Out on Harare’s streets, a growing number of civil servants are turning to vending once their official workday ends.
Ngara arrives home around 8 o’clock, but the majority of the time is worked until 9 or 10 o’clock.
Many teachers are turning to vending for employment. Takavafira Zhou is the president of the Progressive Teachers Union of Zimbabwe and says teachers are taking on these extra, informal jobs because “salaries are pathetic” and “families cannot make ends meet”.
People are “failing , to pay for their families, to pay medical bills, to pay for rentals,” he said. Government employees have developed strategies for surviving, therefore.
According to Zhou, “the majority of government workers” have now turned to some sort of vending, although there is no data to confirm this.
Zimbabwe’s informal sector accounts for 20% of employment and 18% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), according to ZimStats, the government statistics agency. However, experts claim that Zimbabweans’ majority work in the informal sector and that the government underplays the numbers.
“It is a situation where you have a choice to starve or to find survival methods, bearing in mind that the employer is uncaring”, Zhou added, accusing the state of offering unreasonable salaries and not improving working conditions for teachers.
Most Zimbabwean civil servants, including teachers, made a basic monthly salary of about $ 540 before November 2018.
However, the government has no longer offers fully US dollar-pegged payments in the wake of the economic downturn in 2019. Salaries are now split into two portions: a US dollar (USD) component – $160 for most civil servants – and an amount in local currency, which equals less than $100 when converted.
We are in a jungle, you say?
Late one afternoon, Ngara and his 21-year-old son spread out their wares on the pavement in front of registered supermarkets and stores selling the same goods they do.
The government introduced a new gold-backed currency, the ZiG, last year, and put stricter restrictions on foreign currency use in an effort to combat hyperinflation. Registered stores must either trade in the local currency or use the official USD exchange rates as a result.
Informal vendors, meanwhile, use black market exchange rates, meaning their products are cheaper for customers. Additionally, they exchange hard USD money. Because they prefer to purchase from vendors and prefer to use local bills, the majority of Zimbabweans prefer using USD notes.
“We do not accept the local currency”, explained Tariro Musekiwa, a street vendor sitting on a cardboard box, who only trades in USD.
Consumers can get more for less on the informal market by purchasing from the official exchange rate of $1 to $26.40, while the unofficial black-market rate ranges from 36 to 40 ZiG per USD.
According to Musekiwa, who sells soaps, cordial drinks, and yoghurts, consumers need to pay less for goods. Because the same products are more expensive in stores, he believes the vendors are offering an important service.
Ngara concured. Every street and corner is filled with people selling something, according to the saying. So I try to sell goods which sell quickly at lower prices”, he said.
The fittest survives in the jungle, according to the saying.
However, the influx of vendors hasn’t been a blessing for registered store owners.
Trymore Chirozva, the manager at Food World, a supermarket retailer in Harare, expressed dismay that vendors sell similar products outside on the pavement.
He noted that, in recent years, vendors have become mini-stores, which have had an impact on our company, as opposed to prior times when they would only sell fruits and vegetables.
Less than 200 vendors can be found at just five of Harare’s CBD’s official vending locations. Yet, thousands of informal vendors flock to the streets every day.
Ngara and many others claim to find ways to circumvent the law when they operate without official permits. The officers simply demand some bribes, or they might just pass [us] by.
closing of large corporations
Chirozva thinks that vendors are not subject to the same strict regulations as large corporations, which is why stores like his are negatively impacted.
Patience Maodza, an economist, believes vendors are leveraging on the regulation gap.
The government “overregulates shops,” according to the statement, “causing] an unfair business environment for registered entities that are tax compliant.”
Leading regional clothing and chain stores in Zimbabwe have been shut down in the past 12 months, most of whom blame two factors: the ban on using USD and the influx of vendors who are taking over their businesses without the government’s approval.
One of Zimbabwe’s largest wholesale hardware companies, N Richards Group, has closed two branches.
The N Richards Group’s director Archie Dongo claimed that the government is overburdening those who already pay taxes in a statement to Zimbabwe’s parliament.
Reduce the head tax rate and the tax rate, while obtaining that amount from the largest possible number of players. In that way, we will not have a problem of fiscal mobilisation in the economy, we actually believe we’ll get more tax that way”, Dongo said.
The top supermarket chain in the country, OK Zimbabwe, has struggled to restock its branches over the past year, a problem that was made worse by the introduction of the ZiG, which has impacted supply chains and pricing structures. In January, the company shut down five of its supermarkets.
Economist Kajiva believes that the government’s economic policies have played “a significant role” in the business sector’s struggles.
He claimed that the policy has caused businesses, including major retailers like OK Zimbabwe and N Richards, to experience significant pressure.
Due to the difficult economic climate and tight fiscal conditions, these businesses were forced to reduce their size.
“Something tangible,”
Traditional workers struggle as do traditional businesses.
While many like Ngara are embracing side hustles, some have abandoned their government jobs altogether.
Portia Mbano, 39, formerly of the government, transitioned to full-time vendor work.
She initially began selling goods after work hours in small batches. But she soon realised she was “ageing and needs something tangible”.
She said, “I realized that I was losing a lot by working at the office rather than taking this job full-time.”
From a pavement stall in the CBD, she now sells a variety of groceries and small household items.
Samuel Mangoma, the director of Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (VISET), an organisation advancing the rights of informal economy workers across Africa, told Al Jazeera there has been a “sharp rise” in street vendors in central Harare.
He claimed that this is because there aren’t as many opportunities for formal employment and that many people are now “finding refuge in the informal sector.”
He disapproves of vendors who sell the same goods for lower prices while operating in front of stores, though.
“People are trying to survive in this very difficult economic environment. However, we don’t encourage our members to occupy spaces in front of large retailers and grocery stores. He reaffirmed that we encourage our members to work from locations where it is necessary to avoid conflict with other business players.
Nevertheless, out on the streets, government workers continue to set up their informal shops, with Ngara saying he plans to continue until his family is stable enough to survive without it.
Ngara said, “I need my son to attend college and to own property for my family, so I need both jobs until that time.”
“We continue the cat and mouse game despite the challenges we face on the streets, including the government’s attempts to remove us from the CBD, at least for the moment,” said the council.
