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| author/source:Zim Online (SA) |
| published:Sat 19-Nov-2005 |
| posted on this site:Sat 19-Nov-2005 |
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| Article Type : News |
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| No longer a normal country |
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Harare - Like every child his age Shamiso Mutete (not his real name), would love to play with the toys everyday after school. But life in Harare's poverty-stricken Kuwadzana suburb appears determined to deny the 11-year old Mutete the opportunity to be a child. For at the toll of the last bell everyday at the government-run Kuwadzana primary school, Mutete must transform from being a carefree child into a seasoned bread winner for his family. From school he dashes home to change from his school uniform and to eat a little lunch - if there is something to eat that day - before he rushes to the local supermarket to buy several cartons of cigarettes. The grade-six pupil is already good friends with shop assistants at the supermarket who always ensure they reserve enough cartons of the most cigarette brands for the youngster. Come the evening and the hard work begins for Mutete and his two friends at Sunset Nightclub in the suburb where they sell cigarettes to patrons, among them prostitutes, thieves, petty drug dealers and factory workers relaxing after a hard day's work in Harare's poor-paying industries.
"I help raise money to pay for my school fees and food for my family from selling cigarettes here," says the shy boy, who says he dreams of becoming a pilot one day - a dream the youngster may never nurture to reality if he continues plying beerhalls every other night. But Simba, the bar tender, is quick to defend Mutete and her friends. Simba says bars and nightclubs would normally not allow people below the age of 18 but according to the barman, Zimbabwe is no longer a normal country and neither are Mutete and his friends living up a normal child's life. "It's not a normal situation but we are not in a normal country either," says Simba, the emphasis in his words indicating his firm conviction that the rules and norms must be broken in order to help the poor children raise much needed cash. He continued: "Conditions in the bar are obviously not conducive for such young children. But we also know that they are not street children. They are from proper families too poor to fend for the children so they get their survival from here." You just need to listen to the young Mutete speaking to learn how true the barman's words are. Mutete's parents are all alive but they are among the millions of unemployed Zimbabweans and the little money his father raises as a part-time shoe cobbler is not just enough to feed the family let alone send children to school.
This is how the 11-year old narrates his situation: "I envy some of my classmates when they talk about their favourite TV shows because for me there is no time to watch TV. It is work and work, otherwise we will starve. My school fees is $280 000 a term. After raising the schools fees by selling cigarettes I try to raise some more money so I could assist my father to pay the rent and water bills as well as buy some food." Such is the plight of an increasing number of Zimbabwe's children as the southern African nation battles an economic meltdown described by the World Bank as unseen in a country not at war. The six year-old crisis has seen inflation shooting to beyond 400 percent while food, fuel, electricity, clean water for cities, hard cash, essential medical drugs and just about every basic survival commodity is in critical short supply. The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party and government critics blame the crisis on repression and economic mismanagement by President Robert Mugabe. But Mugabe, Zimbabwe's sole ruler since independence 25 years ago, denies ruining the once prosperous country, saying its food and economic problems are because of sabotage by Western countries opposed to his seizure of land from whites and giving it over to blacks. Critics blame the land seizures - which Mugabe says were necessary to correct an unjust colonial land tenure system that gave all the best land to whites - for destabilisng the agricultural sector, causing a 60 percent drop in food output.
Whatever the causes of Zimbabwe's economic and food crisis, the children have been the hardest hit according to Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) president Lovemore Matombo. Matombo, who was last week arrested for organising anti-poverty demonstrations, says child labour was on the rise as many under-age children were being forced to work to help their parents raise cash for survival. "Some of the cases are of children who have been forced to head families because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. But we are now witnessing a growing trend where children, whose parents are still alive are forced to work part-time and supplement family incomes. It's an unfortunate trend that is on the rise," says the union leader. Thomas Chitewe, from Help Our Children, a local group formed to mobilise assistance for children from poor families, concurred with Matombo. He said: "The economic climate has had devastating and horrendous effects on Zimbabwean children. Many no longer enjoy their childhood because they are forced to become adults at an early age. Many families can't afford to give their children the life that they deserve because of poverty." But Mutete and his friends must consider themselves lucky that they can sell cigarettes and still go to school. Not so for 14-year old Mavis Rukuni, who says she was forced to abandon school altogether and become a housemaid for a richer family in town so she could raise money for her parents and siblings. She told ZimOnline: "My parents did not have money to send me to school. I had to look for work and I send some of my money back to the village so that my parents and remaining younger sister and brother can use."
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