KWEKWE Proportional Representation MP, Perseverance Zhou says the localised lockdown imposed on Kwekwe by government recently was having an adverse impact on women especially those making a living through street vending.
Government imposed the lockdown after authorities had detected a case of the dreaded Indian variant linked to a resident who had just returned from the Covid ravaged country.
Addressing journalists in Kwekwe recently, Zhou said the lockdown has seen a plunge in living conditions for women working in the streets who are often engaged in daily skirmishes with both regular and municipal police while selling their wares.
Faced with a narrowing employment base coupled with scarce opportunities within the country’s economy, a lot of women have turned to street vending for salvation.
“Women are faced with big problems during this lockdown,” Zhou said.
“The problems include but not limited to reduced hours of working, hence reduced income.
“Transport problems since ZUPCO is reducing numbers, above all, the unforgiving streets where women are not able to access the streets to sell their wares due to the lockdown.
“Those bold enough to brave the streets are having a cat and mouse game with the police in the streets leading to loss of their wares.”
The lawmaker said “even ladies of the night have lost their jobs” although the situation is worse for women in mining.
Due to transport blues caused by limited Zupco buses, she added, women are forced to leave their mining sites early so as to beat the curfew, in the process, losing productivity and revenue as mining was a 24-hour job.
“Women are playing a significant role in mining in Kwekwe. We have women who are engaged in gold mining and chrome mining, considering that Kwekwe is a mining city.
“However, the biggest challenge is that women are not exposed to professional mining therefore lag behind their male counterparts.
“Women cannot mine underground therefore they are losing out to their male counterparts who will be duping them.
“Furthermore, most women do not have enough capital to buy machinery. In addition, they lack basic skills such as recording and budgeting invariably hampering their efforts.
“The situation has been made more difficult by the localised lockdown,” she said.