BERNARD MPOFU
For many residents of Harare’s upmarket northern suburbs, the name Lena Mupomba doesn’t ring a bell.
Yet, many of them see her every day, without paying much attention to her.
Mupomba is 40, blind and survives on handouts.
Before March 1, the mother of four would catch the early bus into the central business district from her dwelling in Epworth, one of Harare’s poorest districts.
For more than 10 years, the corner of Leopold Takawira and Josiah Tongogara Avenues has been her second home.
Each day, she would stretch her hand with a begging bowl hoping well-wishers rushing by towards the wealthy northern areas of the city part with a few notes, which are never enough to feed her family.
That is not the case anymore. Since Zimbabwe began enforcing a 21-day lockdown to minimise the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, there is no bus to take her to the city centre, and she has no permission to be in the city centre.
Only members of essential services, such as security services, health and other critical services can travel into the city.
Many in Zimbabwe appear to have accepted dramatic disruptions to their daily lives and substantial economic losses, based on the belief that slowing the spread of the coronavirus can keep the country’s already crisis-hit health care systems from further collapse.
Previous outbreaks like Cholera and Typhoid have stretched the country’s health system to the limits.
Around the world, cases related to the novel coronavirus have reached close to 2 million, with over 100,000 deaths.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced strict measures regulating movements, banning of crowds as part of government’s efforts to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
Research shows that the elderly and the disabled face high risk of contracting the respiratory ailment.
Policies imposed in rich countries to fight the coronavirus could have adverse effects in low-income nations—potentially endangering more lives than they save.
Already low- to middle-income countries, such as Bangladesh and Nigeria, are different and raise different questions, namely: do the benefits of countrywide lockdowns also outweigh the costs in poor countries?
For Mupomba, who requires assistance from her children for mobility, the answer is clear.
“I am finding it difficult to feed my family,” said Mupomba, whose husband died in 2004.
“Many blind people in Epworth are also facing the same predicament.
God knows where I will get tomorrow’s meal. For now I’m like a wild bird.”
Official figures show that in 2012, Epworth district had the highest infant mortality rate of 74 deaths per 1 000 live births while Harare Urban had the lowest of 47 deaths per 1 000 live births.
In all district, male mortality was higher than female mortality.
Driving into Epworth, one observes a vast settlement of illegal structures where families are living in squalid conditions.
Self-employment in cottage industries is the man source of livelihood in poor townships like Epworth.
With no piped water at her home, Mupomba has to fetch water from protected wells where many converge, forced by circumstance to defy social distancing measures.
She will also fetch firewood to prepare food for her children. Living in a community where up to 10% of the population aged 3 to 24 has never been to school has never been as hard as this for the 40-year old widow.
According to the country’s statistics agency, ZimStat, Epworth, a satellite town located nearly 20 km south east of the capital is home to close to 200,000 poor people.
The densely populated suburb has in the past been affected by various disease outbreaks such as typhoid.
It has a high crime rate. A 2012 Census revealed that 79% of the households had no water on their premises, while 15 percent had water within a distance of less than 500 meters.
“It was further noted that households in Harare Urban and Chitungwiza areas were better off than those in Harare Rural and Epworth, both in terms of the quality of water and the distance to the source,” the report further shows.
While Mupomba has to grapple with where she will find her next meal, those residing in the northern suburbs have been least affected by the public health crisis.
They have running water from boreholes, internet connectivity which they can use to work from home and enough savings to buy groceries for the next six months or more.
Ahmed Mushfiq Mobaraq, in his op-ed titled Poor Countries need to rethink social distancing, warned that developing countries would emerge more bruised after the shutdown due to the strict measures.
“To put it bluntly, imposing strict lockdowns in poor countries—where people often depend on daily handson labor to earn enough to feed their families—could lead to a comparable number of deaths from deprivation and preventable diseases,” Mobarq argued.
As Mupomba faced her daily hardships, Mnangagwa, who went to his hometown of Kwekwe on Easter Sunday, made a plea to those with deep pockets to help the poor.
His call reflect on the country’s weak safety nets.
Samantha Sibanda, a director at Signs of Hope Trust, an organisation that advocates for the rights of people living with disability said the current lockdown had made the work of relief agencies difficult.
“We have mainly been carrying awareness campaigns for Covid-19 social media and other media platforms.
It has been difficult to reach out to such groups because of the lockdown.
More has to be to be done to ensure that they are aware of the pandemic,” Sibanda said.
“During the troubling time for the entire world, Zimbabweans must come together and protect our vulnerable.
Together we are stronger and together we will get through this period of uncertainty and out on the other side; safe and healthy and back on the path to prosperity,” Mnangagwa tweeted this week.
On the contrary with Zimbabwe economy projected to tank due to after effects of the pandemic among other factors, the gulf between the have and have-nots has widened during this lockdown.
A few minutes’ drive from Mupomba’s house, residents from Epworth, Chadcombe, and Hatfield are queuing for subsidised mealie meal.
There is no social distancing which is being promoted to contain the spread of the virus. It’s business as usual as if the pandemic never existed.
Half an hour drive from Epworth, Zimbabwe’s middle income and the high net worth individuals load trollies with Veblen goods such as champagne, choice beef and fruit juices.
They maintain social distancing and put on face masks and gloves
