The Problematic Nature of Lockdown on Women in Zimbabwe’s Informal Economy

Zimbabwe has the largest informal economy in Africa and the second-largest in the world, and women constitute 67% of this sector. The informal sector is, therefore, the biggest employer in Zimbabwe not by people’s choice but as a survivalist strategy run by those who strive to make ends meet in a context of scarcity and poverty. Women find themselves as the majority in this sector due to several limitations and male dominance both in the formal sector and in the home, and this has seen women as the most affected group by the COVID 19 induced lockdown.

The Informal Economy, in terms of cross-border trading and vending, has been the mainstay of countless people’s livelihoods in Zimbabwe. The COVID-19 lockdown has therefore disrupted this livelihood as informal markets are still banned and borders closed. In response to this, informal traders have taken it upon themselves to violate lockdown restrictions choosing instead to be exposed to the virus than to watch their families starve.

In a brief interview with Edu Pulse, Mai Rudo (pseudonym) a “money changer” in Highfield said, “We have just shifted two streets from Machipisa Shopping Centre, and we conduct our business there, but we are always on the lookout for the police to allow us time to run and hide.”

Cross border traders are finding it difficult to make ends meet, but for some, there is always an alternative. Women in this trade have resorted to corruption by bribing whoever they can so that they can cross the border or at least their goods can do so.

This exposes women to harassment which they are unable to report and creates a culture of silence and an increase in female oppression. In an interview, Stacy, a cross-border trader, mentioned that she pays truck drivers to hide her in their trucks so that she “can cross the border, buy her goods and come back to sell them.”

Disabled women are also a part of the informal economy, as many of them are street vendors. The lockdown has added insult to injury as it has prohibited the only way of life that they know. The government has not come up with policies to help them in any way, and this has left many vulnerable to abuse and exploitation to survive.

The Musasa Project reported that during the lockdown, gender-based violence has increased by 70%, which is rather shocking. The lockdown restricts women from going outside their homes and earning a living; this then gives room for exploitation of women and the patriarchal dividend as most men are employed in the formal sector. They are thus leaving women as the vulnerable gender reliant on men and their incomes.