The survey, which was conducted last week by Chitownews visiting cross-border traders at their market stalls at Makoni, Huruyadzo, Chigovanyika and other local shopping centers, revealed that women of different ages and social statuses ranging from the married, divorced and single mothers are involved in the trade selling products such as clothes, shoes, bags, jewellery and household consumables.

Young women graduating from different institutions in Zimbabwe are also involved in cross-border trade as they are unable to get formal employment. The results of the survey shows that women who are in the cross-border trade spend several days travelling to countries such as South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique, Tan`zania and Zambia to buy goods for resale.

Tracy Chimunda (21) a single mother of one girl who rents a table at Makoni shopping center said “Informal cross-border trade is my only means of survival”. “What keeps me in the trade is the need to earn income to keep her family alive and dressed and I am able to pay rentals and school fees for my child from the sales,” said Tracy.

Talent Chivanga (27), a married woman who is a cross-border trader, rents a table at Zengeza 2 shopping center. Talent said “I travel to and from South Africa where I buy shoes for resale”. “I have been in this trade for over five years now and I use the money I obtain from the business to pay rentals and to buy food for my family since my husband is unemployed”, continued Talent.

The survey, also revealed that some of the women engaged in the trade have managed to buy assets such as residential stands, cars and household properties. “At times we make good profits in the business and I bought a car with the money from my business last year” said Tsitsi (23) a single woman who sales clothes at Makoni shopping center.

Women in the cross-border trade face different challenges in their line of work. Most of the women interviewed by Chitownews revealed that due to low profit margins and falling disposable incomes, cross-border traders are forced to use cheaper transport alternatives like Haulage trucks and private cars, exposing them to rape, sexual abuse and robbery.

Commenting on these challenges, Tsitsi said “most young women face the challenge of sexual abuse by bus drivers, conductors and truck drivers along the way”. She said, “The drivers offer the young women free and cheap transport in exchange for sex and the women sometimes agree because they would like to cut costs”

She continued; “The problem comes when the woman turns down the sex-for-transport proposal”. She emphasised, “Most men feel that whenever they help a woman, she is duty-bound to reciprocate with sexual favours”. She went on to narrate shocking tales of women dumped by the roadside, assaulted, raped for refusing drivers sexual advances along the way.

Brenda Makamba(24) said “the trade is very risky and sometimes life threatening”. She said “as informal cross-border traders we use public transport such as buses and mini-buses and some of our colleagues in the cross-border trade have lost their lives due to fatal accidents”.

The survey, reveals that despite the risks and hardships associated with cross-border trading, women still consider cross-border trade as their hope for survival because of economic hardships and high unemployment rates currently prevailing in Zimbabwe.

Serious clashes erupted when the churchmen fought back, engaging the party youths in fist-cuffs and wrestling matches which lasted for several minutes before subsiding as both groups fought each other to a stand-still. The drama attracted a sizable group of onlookers from the densely populated CA section which included women, children and patrons of the nearby Katanga Beerhall. More drama was to follow when the youths upon realizing that the church men outnumbered them and were no pushover- changed tactics and started singing intimidating revolutionary songs supported by drumbeating, toyi-toying and chanting of party slogans. The christian sect was momentarily stunned into silence until an old woman churchgoer came to their rescue by singing the popular church hymn, ‘ Jesu Idombo’. From that moment, the momentum shifted in favour of the ‘Men of God’ whose singing and dancing grew louder and was more choreographed than that of their opponents attracting the support of some bystanders who volunteered to join them in the singing contest.

As if to outmaneuver their opponents, the youths started marching around the stand while singing and toyi-toying. In response, the churchgoers knelt down and prayed loudly for divine intervention with arms raised to the skies. Their prayers were answered after the youths had marched several times around the stand and withdrew to deliberate the way forward amongst themselves. The stand off ended with the youths vowing to shed blood in defence of their right to housing. As they retreated from the church stand, they threatened the church members with personal reprisals and branded them sellouts and opposition activists.

Bystanders who witnessed the drama blamed the Chitungwiza Municipality for corruption and cronyism leading to haphazard and double land allocations. Interestingly, people residing near the contested ground claimed that it was unsuitable for development and habitation as it was reserved for sewer mains which ran underground. The neighbours shed more light on the dispute, saying the church was the first to erect their tent on the ground some six months back before the ZANU PF youths came and self-allocated the remaining portions of land adjacent to the church stand. The dispute only arose when youth members who came after the first group and had not been allocated land came up with the idea of evicting the church men to create stands for themselves about a month ago. They approached the church’s pastor and leadership with a letter purportedly from the ZANU PF National youth league commissariat giving them permission to identify and settle on idle land. The churchmen showed them their own offer letters from the Chitungwiza Municipality. One of the youths constructed a two roomed brick house at the corner of the contested stand and it was partially demolished last Sunday when the church men met for Sunday service. The youths retaliated during the week and razed the tent to the ground only for it to be re-erected by the churchgoers at the end of the week. The tit-for-tat actions culminated in the showdown on Sunday. If the neighbours are to be believed- the drama is to be continued.

The tragic accident occurred just opposite the St Mary’s Police Station when the deceased was trying to stop the commuter omnibus driver who was behind another a car. In trying to avoid arrest the commuter omnibus driver chose to drive around the slowing down vehicle ahead of him, trapping the police officer between the two oncoming cars and running down the police officer.

The kombi driver escaped after the accident heading in the direction of Chikwanha Shopping centre. Eye witnesses interviewed by Chitownews say the driver did not intentionally run over the police officer but was simply trying to avoid the impounding of his bus or the payment of a hefty fine but his rash actions led to the unnecessary lose of life. The Commuter Omnibus driver was arrested later that day at his home in Mubvumira road, Zengeza 3 and has since appeared in court.

This incident comes hot on the heels of several such road rage clashes between kombi crews and Traffic Police. In June, another Traffic Police Officer based at St. Marys was hit by a Kombi and sustained serious injuries breaking both legs and arms.

In most suburbs there has not been clean running water in the tapes for at least two months whilst other suburbs are having water in their tapes once or twice a month. Despite the fact that the residents are not accessing water the council continues to bill them. Service delivery in the town of Chitungwiza is poor while rampant abuse of funds by the council has been reportedly extensively.

The town has been transformed into a slum settlement without basic services as women and children are always seen hunting for water. Scenes of huge crowds thronging boreholes and wells have become common place. Everywhere people are seen carrying containers of water in their heads, pushcarts and vehicles.

Due to the patriarchal hegemony prevailing in Zimbabwe water shortage have become a gender issue as women are tasked with the house keeping roles bear the brunt of water shortages while men fulfill the bread winning roles away from home. Women and children spend many hours in long queues at the few functioning boreholes as some of the community boreholes are no longer working. Water in Chitungwiza is now so scarce that the residents are now buying water from those with wells. It is very unfortunate that the water table has fallen as the dry season is now approaching hence some of the wells have no water.

Water shortage in Chitungwiza has led some of the residents to resort to the use of dirty water from the nearby rivers and unsafe wells. The use of unsafe and dirty water has dangerous consequences on the health of the residents as they can suffer from water borne diseases. Toilets in most homes are not clean due to the shortage of water.

Speaking during the launch of a report on the benchmarks of citizen engagement which was co-hosted by CCDN and the Chitungwiza Press Club, CCDN Coordinator  Eddington Shayanowako encouraged young people to approach the courts and demand the full provision of their social services for example the right to access to safe and clean portable water from their local authority.

“The rights listed in the declaration of rights are constitutional rights and therefore legally protected and you must take your local authority to the courts if your rights to access to social services for example access to portable water are to be fully realised,” said Shayanowako.

Chitungwiza Residents Trust director, Marvellous Kumalo expressed gratitude at the research report produced by CCDN saying residents in Chitungwiza will soon sit down and strategies on how to use the report on its advocacy work.

“The benchmark on citizen engagement report produced by CCDN is very informative and an eye opener and now we have clear understanding of what is needed to be done by us as a residents association” said Kumalo.

Some residents who attended the dialogue meeting also thanked CCDN for engaging and help them with relevant pertinent resident engagement information.

“We thank CCDN for conveying such critical knowledge to us, we now know we can take them (council) to court so they can deliver what they are supposed to deliver,” Arthur from Zengeza 2 emphasized.

The meeting was attended by more than 50 people. The director for Youth Advocacy for Research and Democracy Themba Mliswa, MDC-T Chitungwiza provincial chair Jabulani Mutinzi, Zimbabwe People First representative Nyasha Nhau and Chitungwiza Residents Trust director Marvellous Kumalo also attended the meeting as a discussant.

The families are camped in a bushy area about a kilometre from their demolished settlement. About 600 of these internally displaced persons (IDPs) have migrated from Dunstan Farm, an informal settlement near Harare International Airport which was demolished and razed down in February 2016 following an order by President Mugabe. Ever since this incident these families have been staying in make shift houses at Dunstan Farm waiting to be allocated alternative land to resettle by the land barons who sold them the stands near Harare international airpot.

It has been reported that in June2016 these families were relocated from Dunstan farm to Bremer farm in the hope that they will be allocated housing stands, with the Harare South Mp Mr Shadreck Mashayamombe playing a key role in facilitating and organizing transport to that effect. However upon arrival the land barons and leadership disappeared without allocating them stands as anticipated, leading to the victims organizing themselves and self-allocating housing stands at Bremer Farm until the subsequent evictions of 17 August 2016

The families are in urgent need of relief in the form of food supplies, clean water, clothing, blankets and temporary shelter.

Chitungwiza a mayraid of challenges which include high levels of corruption in allocation of residential and commercial stands, running tape water one day a week, potholed road network, non-functional street lightning system, inconsistent of collection of refuse among others.

“You don’t have water, so what is stopping you from demonstrating at the municipal head office”, said Themba Mliswa.

“You need to organize yourselves and demonstrate at the head office so that you can water consistently. Water is a right you cannot live without”, continued Mliswa.

Residents are of the view that we can’t have a functional local authority when the State has failed to deliver.