Zimbabwe’s economy burdens the elderly

By Prince Njagu

In one of the oldest dormitory towns of Chitungwiza, 30 kilometres outside the capital Harare, St Mary’s neighbourhood houses the oldest women who have lived to endure the birth pangs of life yet they are still a force to reckon with and depict how life is a struggle for most women in Zimbabwe.

The widowed women in the slum communities though widowed, frail and helpless they continue to find ways to make their lives better and go another day.

In abject poverty many old and widowed women in this part of the country are too frail to work yet they have to make ends meets and take care of their grandchildren whose parents die of the deadly Aids pandemic or have disappeared into neighboring countries in search of greener pastures and never to return.

One such woman is sixty five year old, Joyce Maturure who says she has stayed in the St Mary’s residential area for more than 40 years; she came into the capital in search of employment back in the 1960s.

“I came here in 1967 when I was looking for employment in the booming industrial sites in the Chitungwiza area; back then I worked at the Tobacco Research facility and that’s when I acquired my residential stand in St Mary’s.”

“My origins are in Malawi and I came to Chitungwiza when I was 20; I was looking for work in the sprouting industrial areas near this place; I had my first daughter here and I have seen her give birth to my great great son, I don’t even know if my relatives are still around in Malawi,” said Mbuya Maturure.

The vast number of the old people living in the St Mary’s area, bought their homes while they were still working in the local industries which were budding near the Chitungwiza area in the early 70s and the residents never resettled elsewhere.

“As old women in this community we once had cooperatives which were funded by donors but that was back in the days now we have resorted to selling vegetables and tomatoes so that we can at least earn a living; people actually shun this area and the able bodied no longer want to be associated with this area; I personally have nowhere to go so I have to fight my way through this fast urban life,” said Mbuya Maturure.

According to Mbuya Maturure, foreign donors (USAID) used to sponsor self-help projects and food donations that were basically focused on giving aid to the elderly women in St Mary’s.

However with the dwindling of the donor community in the country, many old women are finding themselves in difficult situations and are forced to set-up less capital intensive self-help projects such as chicken breeding and vegetable vending.

According to the women these small projects cannot sustain them, as they are faced with ever growing needs and responsibilities; from healthcare issues and ageing.

As stated in the Zimbabwe Constitution; people over the age of seventy years have the right to receiving reasonable care and assistance from their families and the State.

However, due to economic hardships which have crippled the country and the ravaging HIV/ Aids pandemic which has swept the working population, grandparents have now assumed the role of care givers to the orphans who are left behind.

“Old women are the ones who are supposed to be getting assistance from their children but economic hardships and the increase in the number of youth infected by Aids and this has put strain on the ageing as they have since assumed double roles of fighting ageing and fending for the orphan’s,” said one care giver from Chitungwiza, Lilian Mpofu.

According to the Zimbabwe Human Development Report 2013, Aids related deaths have placed a huge burden on the old aged; aged widows in particular as they are the ones who provide home based care for their infected children and look after the orphans after the parents would have passed away.

“Ageing widows in particular constitute a substantial number of the total population in our communities but little to no attention is being given to them, with only a few being housed in old people’s homes; living in pitiable conditions as funding for such facilities has dwindled,” said Ms Mpofu.