Tsitsi Ndabambi
Zimbabwean citizens are restless about the lockdown due to lack of food in their homes.
Mainly ordinary citizens who stay in urban areas survive from hand to mouth and are self-employed.
Putting food on the table especially for single mothers has been a cause for concern.
On a ladies’ social media prayer group one lady who is a vendor in the Harare CBD streets swallows her pride and pleads for her sisters in Christ for help. She asks for basics, mealie- meal, salt, sugar and cooking oil with hope that the lockdown will be over soon.
Another lady a sex worker from Epworth shares an image of herself and friends in a long mealie-meal queue of more than two thousand people who are hopping to buy at least a 5kg bag.
In that queue everyone is concerned more about their empty stomachs than catching the dreaded virus. There is no social distancing, “if we maintain the social distance then someone will definitely jump the line and stand in my place, I have to sacrifice my health and feed my four kids,” says Lucy the sex worker, “I am still doing sex work at any given chance that I get, mostly I service business men in their cars or we go to lodges owned by their friends.”
Her friends also confirmed that they are indeed still doing sex work because they can’t afford to be in a lockdown lest they starve to death. “We dunk the police and the army although it is not that easy,” says another lady Tariro.
“Unfortunately we do not have access to condoms so these days we’re practising unsafe sex, some of us have already contracted sexually transmitted diseases, and probably spreading it and HIV also, the police is chasing us so going to a clinic is difficult and expensive. My friend is not collecting medication because they are now charging rtgs $30 which she cannot afford.”
Most families like that of Lucy’s are facing different economic predicaments and risking their lives in quest for survival during the lockdown.
There is need for more education on the dangers of corona virus in urban areas and solutions to tackle hunger during lockdown, food relief is a major factor.
To date the number of confirmed cases has risen to 23 in Zimbabwe which might result in the extension of the lockdown.
