Chronicle Editor
Andile Tshuma, Chronicle Correspondent
BULAWAYO residents who survive on piece jobs are feeling the pinch of Covid-19 as there are fewer employers willing to take in strangers.
Despite the declaration of a five-week lockdown to avert the spread of Covid-19, some people continue to look for jobs in the streets in the central business district, saying they were stranded, and looking for a way to provide the day’s meal.
The city’s popular spot for piece job seekers at the intersection of 4th Avenue and Robert Mugabe Way has fewer people of late, but they are always alert and are always in running battles with police, who want them to stay at home and observe the lockdown.
Chronicle caught up with some job seekers yesterday who narrated their ordeals.
Ms Tendai Ncube from Burnside suburb said she was used to the life of “borrowing from Peter to pay Paul,” just so that her children could get something to eat.
She said she appreciated the need to stay at home to save lives but hunger was pushing her out onto the street.
“If you do not know the poverty that we live in, then you can tell us about the lockdown and that we must stay at home. We died a long time ago, all that is left is to be buried. Our way of survival is not something that you can call living. I recently lost my child who worked at Chicken Inn and my life took a turn for the worst. How do I stay at home, to eat what?” asked Ms Ncube.
Another job seeker, who identified herself as Noreen Ndlovu, said she lost her job as a fulltime housemaid after her employer notified her that she could no longer afford her services.
“Things have always been hard. As things get tough, less people afford to get helpers. I was laid off and had to join others here to tout for jobs. But throughout the times we have been here, this is the worst of them all. Covid-19 has brought unspeakable suffering to us. The first week was better as we still had a bit of food in the house but as we got into the following week, without going out and bringing anything, it was getting bad and I had to start coming to town,” said Ms Ndlovu.
The job seekers said they were now used to playing ‘chase and run’ with law enforcement agents.
They said some of them had since been arrested for lockdown violations, but highlighted that the development had not deterred them from trekking to the ‘job spot’ daily to try their luck.
Mr Benson Dzova of Gwabalanda suburb said he had found a way to avoid police roadblocks for a daily successful trip to town, and said he had almost been caught thrice since the commencement of the lockdown on March 30.
“We play cat and mouse with police daily. Police tell us that we must be at home as there is a lockdown. But we would have managed to navigate our way through four more roadblocks coming from the township. I use Luveve Road and I have devised a way to get into the city but I will not tell you because then police will follow that up. I wish I could obey lockdown orders, but children are hungry,” he said.
Job seekers said due to the reduced human and vehicular traffic in the city, it had become difficult to get jobs during the lockdown, while some said they assumed that the fear of being infected by the virus was making their usual employers stay away from the spot.
“We can go for five days without getting any work nowadays. People are staying at home and are scared of the Covid-19 and they do not want to risk taking strangers to their homes. But still we just come.
“Staying home and having to stare at the faces of hungry children the whole day is worse torture than coming here and spending the day hoping for a piece job.
“There are so many risks associated with the job because you do not know where they will take you or what will happen when you get there but there’s nothing I can do except pray because I need the money to take care of my family. The risks are worse now. I can go to a house and maybe somebody there is sick with Covid-19 but I do not know. I can be infected and then go home and infect my children,” said Ms Ndlovu.
“Hunting for piece jobs in the streets is not safe at all particularly for us women. We normally get hired by strangers who pass by and we get into their cars without knowing where we are heading to. There are many incidents of women who get raped but cannot report to anyone,” said another woman who refused to be identified.
Some men who spoke to Chronicle recently on finding piece jobs said they were afraid of being hired by criminals and unknowingly facilitate the execution of crimes. — @andile_tshuma
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