Harari, Zimbabwe – Every morning, Domisani Najara* at dawn wakes up to arrest a bus at 6:30 am to work in the Ministry of National Housing and social amenities in Zimbabwe. The government’s bus is free to civil service employees in Harari, and on his monthly salary of $ 250, trying to save every cent.

Once you reach the work, NGARA – wearing a suit and tie – is confirmed that all day files are at a case of request before the office opens at 8:30 am. Between paper works and meetings, it takes rest periods. At 1:00 p.m., the lunch box full of rice and the meat it prepared at home opens.

“Most of us are here, we are working on our best. It is a profession that I love. It is also with job security,” said the husband and father to the 48 -year -old.

But by 5 pm, with the end of the working day, instead of heading to the house, a fire rushes into a toilet in the pub through the street, where he turns into a gym and a shirt before walking four blocks to join his older son in the pavement booth in the city center. From there, they sell groceries to passers -by.

Nagara’s hustle is a secret, as government workers in Zimbabwe are bound by other jobs. But he says that life is difficult for one income.

NGARA has been a government factor since 2010, but the goals meeting have been particularly difficult since 2019, when inflation increased by 300 percent and the value of his salary was eroded.

For rental costs and other expenses, his family had to create a plan.

Nara said: “My wife is selling fruits and vegetables at home while doing the same thing after working here in the Convention on Biological Diversity,” referring to the central commercial district.

“Plastic salaries”

Ngaras are not alone.

On the streets of Harari, a growing number of civil service employees resort to selling as soon as their official working day ends.

Most of the work until 9 or 10 pm, although Nara heads home at about 8 pm.

Many of those who resort to selling are teachers. Takavafira Zhou is the head of the Progressive Teachers Union in Zimbabwe and says that teachers take these additional and informal jobs because “pity salaries” and “families cannot meet their needs.”

He explained that people “fail to pay school fees, feed their families, pay medical bills, and pay rents.” “Therefore, government workers designed the methods of survival.”

According to Zhou, the majority of government workers have now turned into a kind of sale, although there are no data to confirm this.

According to ZimStats, Government Statistics Agency, the unofficial sector in Zimbabwe contributes 18 percent to the country’s GDP (GDP) and 20 percent of employment. But experts say that the government reduces the numbers and that the majority of Zimbabwe are working in the informal sector.

“It is a position in which you have the option of starvation or find ways to survive, taking into account that the employer is not interested,” Zhu added, accusing the case of providing unreasonable salaries and not improving the working conditions for teachers.

Before November 2018, most of the civil service employees in Zimbabwe, including teachers, got a basic monthly salary of about $ 540.

However, since the economic shrinkage in 2019, the government stopped providing full payments from the US dollar. Salaries are now divided into two parts: USD component (USD) – $ 160 for most civil service employees – and a local currency amount, which equals less than $ 100 when transferred.

“We are in a forest”

Late one afternoon, Nara and his 21 -year -old son deployed their goods on the sidewalk in front of the registered supermarkets and the shops that sell the same goods they are doing.

Last year, in an attempt to treat excessive inflation, the government has introduced a new gold -backed currency, windingAnd it imposed a tougher regulations on the use of foreign currency. As a result, the registered stores must be traded in the local currency or the use of the official US dollar exchange rates.

Inexes, in the meantime, use Black market exchange ratesThis means that its products are cheaper for customers. It is also trading in the hard dollar currency. Most Zimbabwean maintains US dollars instead of local bills, because they are more stable, and they prefer to buy from sellers.

“We do not accept the local currency,” explained Tiro Museum, the street seller sitting on a cardboard box, which is trading in US dollars only.

Currently, the official exchange rate ranges from $ 1 to 26.4 dollars, while the informal black market rate ranges from 36 to 40 cooperation per US dollar, giving consumers more against the informal market.

Musekiwa, who sells soap, friendly drinks and milk, said people need to buy goods at a lower cost. Since the same products are more expensive in stores, they believe that sellers are providing an important service.

He agreed with fire. He said: “If you look at the streets, all the sidewalks and corners are filled with people selling something. So I am trying to sell goods that sell quickly at lower prices.”

“We are in a forest, which is the most appropriate.”

For registered store owners, the flow of sellers was not a blessing.

Trimor Chozva, director of Food World, a supermarket retail store in Harari, has been dissolved that sellers are selling similar products abroad to the sidewalk.

“On the contrary, when sellers sell fruits and vegetables only, they have become recently, as they have become small, which affects our works,” he said.

HARARE’s CBD has five official sites for sale, which accommodates less than 200 sellers. However, thousands of informal sellers flow into the streets every day.

Najara and many others admit that they are working without official permits, but they say they find ways about the rules. The officers request some bribes, or only sometimes [us by]”

Great business closure store

Chirozva believes that the stores like it are negatively affected because the sellers are not strictly organized like major companies.

MAODZA, economist, believes that sellers are investing in the organization’s gap.

“The government overcame the regulation of stores, but not sellers, and they created [an] An unfair business environment for registered entities that correspond to taxes. “

In the past 12 months, Zimbabwe has witnessed the closure of the leading regional chain stores and clothing lines, while citing two reasons: the restrictions imposed on the use of the US dollar and the flow of sellers who undertake their business without government interference.

One of the largest hardware companies in Zimbabwe, the N Richards collection closed two branches.

Speaking to the Zimbabwe Parliament, Archi Dunjo, director of the N Richards Group, said that the government explodes those who are already paying the tax.

“Reducing the level of taxes and taxis, but collecting this tax from the largest possible number of players,” Dungo said.

OK Zimbabwe, the best supermarket retail store in the country, stood to re -store their branches over the past year – a challenge doubled by the input of zigzag, which disrupted supply chains and pricing structures. The retail seller closed five supermarkets in January.

Economist Kajiva believes that the government’s economic policies played a “important role” in business sector conflicts.

He said: “This policy has led to a sharp decrease in the supply of money, which leads to great pressure on companies, including major retailers like OK Zimbabwe and N Richards.”

“These companies were forced to reduce their size in response to the difficult economic climate that is driven by narrow financial conditions.”

“intangible”

While traditional companies are struggling, traditional workers are also.

While many, like Nagara, adopt a side bustle, some have completely abandoned their government jobs.

Portia Mbano, 39, left her job as a civilian employee to become a full -time seller.

Initially, I started as a small seller after working hours. But she soon realized that she was “aging and needed something tangible.”

“I realized that I was losing a lot by spending time in offices [rather] To take this as a full -time function.

It now sells a variety of grocery stores and small household items of the pavement booth in the Biological Diversity Agreement.

Samuel Manjooma, Director of the sellers initiative for social and economic transformation (VISET), an organization that enhances the rights of informal workers in the economy throughout Africa, Al -Jazeera told the island that there is a “sharp rise” in street sellers in central Harari.

He said: “This is the result of limited opportunities in the official labor market,” where “many people now find a” refuge in the informal sector. “

However, he suffers from sellers who work in front of stores and sell the same goods for cheaper prices.

He said: “People are trying to survive in this very difficult economic environment. But we do not encourage our members to move to spaces and revive them in front of grocery stores and adult retailers. We encourage our members to work from the areas where we do not create the conflict unnecessarily with other business players.”

However, in the streets, government workers continue to create their informal stores, as Nagara said he is planning to continue until his family is stable enough to survive without them.

Nara said: “I need my son to go to university and at least have a property for my family, so I need two jobs even such a time.”

“Despite the challenges we face in the streets, including the government through the Council and the police trying to keep us away from the Convention on Biological Diversity, we continue to game cat and mouse – at least at the present time.”

*The name has been changed to protect privacy