Brisk cross-border trade without passports

cohabited peacefully with her two husbands.
The woman, affectionately known as Mabhau, has since lost her second husband who passed on sometime this year. Tough luck!
But there is another side of Chidodo.

One has to drive down from the cool environs of Mavhuradona Mountain Range into the flat land below to Zimbabwe’s border with Mozambique at Chidodo to see how geography changes people’s lives.
Vagaries of nature such as drought and heat are what naturally grab your attention and also the changing of vegetation from the lush greenery of the mountains to the sparse Mopane bushes of the valley which will also not go unnoticed.

Attended maladies, such malaria present continuing menace that people down this area deal with everyday, although a few lucky ones have developed resistance.
Being part of the Zambezi Valley where the river meanders to its final vomit into Cabora Bassa Dam, Chidodo Border is just 28km from the huge dam and there is brisk business in fish, groceries and almost everything.

Of course, Chidodo is incomparable with Beitbridge or any other of Zimbabwe’s border posts, but there is brisk business, which the Government has not been able to utilise.
The border, is superfluous and imaginary to many villagers since there is nothing distinctive like a river, a fence or any barrier yet villagers can tell that somewhere, somehow this is Zimbabwe and that is Mozambique.

There is huge town called Magobo on the outskirts of the Cabora Bassa Dam in Mozambique, which is virtually sustained by Zimbabwean products, except for the illicit beer brew.
Buses that ply the route from Harare and Bulawayo are the main transport system for goods that have made life easy and good for the Mozambican town, which is more than 500km from Maputo.
There Mozambican live more like they are in Zimbabwe than they are in Mozambique.

Barter trade in fish and goods such as cooking oil, sugar, course salt, butter and an assortment of groceries and goods is rife.
Even Zimbabwean building material is what has been used in constructing that town yet there is no immigration control.

There is a police post with three policemen, at most at times manned by neighbourhood constabularies, who use their discretion to write gate passes for people who do not ordinarily stay in Chidodo communal lands.

The policemen also use their discretion to determine how much fish one can carry into Zimbabwe or how many days a Zimbabwean and Mozambican could spend on either side.
With a bit of seriousness the Government could make big money, especially the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, while businesspeople could make brisk business.

Being far away from the fast paced life of a border town for that matter, lifestyle there is just slow despite the flooding of cross-border traders and live stock dealers.
Since time immemorial the border post had its things firing. But it has since lost grip to the Mozambique side of Magobo. What defies logic is that Zimbabweans are not developing at even a third of the pace Mozambican pace.

Magobo Shopping Centre located about 2km from Chidodo has fast growing business with young, dynamic and business-minded youths from the Mozambique going into business.
The crop of business people there have leant how to capitalise on the opportunities exposed to them on the Zimbabwean side. They trade their cattle with dealers in Zimbabwe, buy grinding millls and building material, among other things. Zimbabwean trader Mai Ruth Mupositori said products from Zimbabwean side were flooding Magobo Shopping Centre.

“We horde beer as with Lawidzani, Tambilani commonly known as Kamutanzi here in the valley and clothing materials popularly known as Zambias which are on demand as for African attires. The type of alcohol we deal in is illegal,” said Mai Mupositori.

One of the villagers in Chidodo, Mr Mark Kapondera, decried the loss of business at border post attributing it to lack of direction from the shop owners.
He said majority of shop owners are broke and have no capacity to run the business but they still cling on their empty shops instead of letting them.

“You know I don’t understand the problem with these so-called shop owners here, villagers are crossing the border from here to Magobo in Mozambique yet they can not take advantage of the buses and kombis that ply Chidodo-Harare route everyday”, said Kapondera.

He added: “The Mozambicans are doing big business. No one asks them for passports. No one makes them pay duty. There is good business here.
“Our revenue has gone down the drain here. Enough is enough, Zimra must come down the valley legalise trade here. Business people in Mozambique getting away with building material and grinding mills free of duty,” he said.