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Ukraine conflict raises fears of another economic crisis in Zimbabwe

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BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

Elina Ncube, a former housekeeper at one of the prime lodges in the northern Zimbabwean tourist gateway of Victoria Falls, now survives by scavenging for food at the municipal dumpsite.

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The 39-year-old mother of five wakes up as early as 4am to make her way to the Masuwe dumpsite because competition is tough as more and more of the city’s residents resort to scavenging due to deepening poverty.

A recent survey by the We Are Victoria Falls initiative found that 7,000 people in the resort city had lost their jobs because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Forty six percent of workers in the tourism sector which covers leisure, hunting and tours as well as transfers were forced to work reduced hours.

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Ncube was fortunate to get a temporary reprieve when the tourism industry reopened late last year after her former employer rehired her as a gardener, but her contract was terminated when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The faraway conflict is having ripple effects across the planet, including in Zimbabwe.

Sectors including tourism that had felt they had turned a corner in recovering from the pandemic are now reeling from the impact of Vladimir Putin’s war.

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Ncube’s employer is one of the many tourism operators who relied on Russian safari tourists in Zimbabwe, whose numbers have taken a dramatic dip since the war began.

“My husband is disabled and when I lost my job my neighbours introduced me to Masuwe dumpsite where we survive on picking up old clothes to wear, food to eat and plastic and metallic objects for resale to recyclers,” Ncube said.

“I can no longer afford to buy basic groceries such as bread and flour to feed my family and prospects of finding another job in this Covid-19 era are near impossible.

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“The war in Ukraine has made the situation even more desperate because most of the tourists that booked at our lodge were from Russia and we were told that most of them had cancelled their bookings.”

Victoria Falls is one of Zimbabwe tourism industry’s major attaractions

Clement Mukwasi, president of the Employers Association for Tours and Safari Operators, said Russia is a big source market for Zimbabwe’s hunting industry and the war had an immediate impact on the country’s tourism industry that was beginning to recover from the impact of Covid- 19 lockdowns.

“We were hoping that we would begin to see some tourist arrivals from all over the world, but we have seen that the tourists, specifically those that come from Russia have completely stopped coming to the continent of Africa,” Mukwasi said.

“Russian citizens are unable to transact on any of the monetary platforms because of the sanctions that the country has been hit with and also when there is instability, it becomes difficult for people to freely move. So what is going to continue happening is that certain sectors of tourism are going to be affected, especially the hunting sector which is mainly dominated by the Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian tourists.”

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“Tourist arrivals from Russia’s neighbours such as Ukraine, Turkey, Poland and Germany have also dropped significantly.”

Mukwasi said the cost of travel globally was rising rapidly as a result of the war and this will negatively impact tourism.

“We are watching that closely and we hope that it will not get back to a point where we are on our knees again, but our bookings that were from these war-zone countries, their neighbours and some parts of Europe have already been cancelled,” Mukwasi added.

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O’brien Dube, a driver employed by a tours and transfers service provider in Victoria Falls, said since the Russia-Ukraine war began the number of tourists had gone down significantly.

“I earn on commission, and this means that if there are no tourists coming through, the demand for my services is low,” Dube said. “Bread now costs over US$2 in supermarkets and the price of fuel has also gone up. I am struggling to feed my children because my taxi has been parked for several weeks.”

A loaf of bread now costs US$2.21 after a series of price reviews in the last two months, which the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe attributes to the increasing difficulties in importing wheat from Ukraine and Russia. Zimbabwe sources nearly 60 percent of its wheat supplies from Russia and Ukraine.

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Beyond the toll on people, conservationists say a combination of Covid-19, effects of the Russia-Ukraine war and Zimbabwe’s worsening economic problems is increasing cases of poaching in communities around game reserves.

Trevor Lane, founder of Bhejane Trust in Victoria Falls, said the Covid-19 pandemic and the general economic collapse has seen both large and small wild animals being targeted by poachers.

Lane said there has also been a rise in fish poaching where poachers resort to using mosquito nets to catch larger volumes of fish

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“Covid-19 has had a massive impact across Africa, which is having devastating consequences, and we are seeing an alarming surge in wildlife and fish poaching,” Lane said.

“We find mosquito nets and cheap filament nets being used illegally with an alarming number of small fish being taken out of the waters before they reach maturity and reproductive size, and this is compromising our ecosystem,”

Ollen Dube, an environmental expert based in Victoria Falls, said there was a worrying increase in poaching activities.

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“Large mammals such as the elephants and rhinos are the prime target too and with this on-going war in Ukraine, the Covid pandemic and general levels of unemployment, we are likely to see many more of them being poached,” Dube said.

In the past few months, police have made several arrests of people found selling ivory in areas such as Victoria Falls, Hwange, Kamativi and Dete.

At least three rhinos have also been killed by poachers in game reserves in Matabeleland South and Masvingo.

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The impact of the war is also being felt through the frequent fuel price increases. Stevenson Dhlamini, an economist from the National University of Science and Technology in Bulawayo, said the Russia-Ukraine war was having a devastating impact on Zimbabwe’s already struggling economy.

“The effect is especially felt in the wheat sector, where supply chains were disrupted by the conflict and consequently created production bottlenecks,” Dhlamini said.

Finance minister Mthuli Ncube last month blamed Zimbabwe’s galloping inflation on the Russia-Ukraine war, saying it was disrupting global supply chains. – The Independent

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Zimbabwe moves to establish tough drug control agency amid rising substance abuse crisis

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BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

As Zimbabwe battles a surge in drug and substance abuse, the government has tabled a new Bill in Parliament seeking to establish a powerful agency to coordinate enforcement, rehabilitation, and prevention programmes across the country.

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The National Drug and Substance Abuse Control and Enforcement Agency Bill (H.B. 12, 2025) proposes the creation of a dedicated agency mandated to combat the supply and demand of illicit drugs, provide rehabilitation services, and strengthen coordination between law enforcement and social service institutions.

According to the explanatory memorandum of the Bill, the agency will operate under two main divisions — a Social Services Intervention Division to focus on prevention, treatment and community rehabilitation, and an Enforcement Division to target supply chains, trafficking networks, and related financial crimes.

The legislation describes drug abuse as “a grave internal national security threat” and “a public health crisis” that fuels organised crime, corruption and violence. It notes that drug profits have enabled criminal cartels to “purchase the instrumentalities of crime, including weapons,” and to corrupt both civilian and non-civilian public officials.

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Under the new framework, the agency will have powers to:

  • Investigate and arrest individuals involved in drug trafficking and production;
  • Work jointly with the Zimbabwe Republic Police, Zimbabwe Revenue Authority, and Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe;
  • Establish checkpoints at ports of entry and exit to intercept harmful substances; and
  • Expand the legal definition of “harmful drugs” to include emerging synthetic substances, in consultation with the Medicines Control Authority of Zimbabwe.

The Social Services Division will lead prevention campaigns, develop demand-reduction programmes, and facilitate the creation of rehabilitation and detoxification centres nationwide. It will also introduce a monitoring system requiring schools, employers, and local authorities to adopt anti-drug awareness and intervention programmes within 90 days of the Act’s commencement.

Each province and district will host offices of the agency to decentralise services and ensure community-level engagement, while traditional leaders will help devise local prevention strategies.

The Bill further empowers the agency to employ prosecutors from the National Prosecuting Authority to handle drug-related cases, signalling a shift toward specialised prosecution of narcotics offences. It also introduces a new, stricter “standard scale of fines” and penalties for drug crimes — higher than those prescribed under existing criminal laws.

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In a major development, the proposed law integrates the agency into Zimbabwe’s Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act, allowing it to pursue unexplained wealth orders and seize assets linked to drug cartels.

The Bill stresses rehabilitation and social reintegration as key pillars. It obliges the agency to support affected individuals through psychosocial counselling, vocational training, and community wellness programmes aimed at helping addicts rebuild their lives.

If passed, the National Drug and Substance Abuse Control and Enforcement Agency will replace fragmented anti-drug efforts currently scattered across ministries and law enforcement agencies, creating a central authority to drive national strategy and coordination.

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Parliament is expected to debate the Bill in the coming weeks amid growing concern over youth addiction to crystal meth, cough syrups, and other illicit substances that have taken root in both urban and rural communities.

 

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Hwange unit 8 breaks down, deepening Zimbabwe’s power supply challenges

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BY WANDILE TSHUMA 

ZESA Holdings has announced that Hwange Unit 8 has been taken off the national grid following a technical fault, a development expected to worsen Zimbabwe’s persistent electricity shortages.

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In a statement released on Monday, the power utility said the unit would be out of service for ten days while restoration work is carried out.

“Hwange Unit 8 has been taken off the grid due to a technical fault. The unit will be out of service for 10 days while restoration work is carried out,” ZESA said.

The company said Hwange Unit 7 remains operational, generating 335 megawatts (MW) to support system stability, while power generation at Kariba South Power Station has been ramped up with “careful management of water allocations” to compensate for the temporary shortfall.

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ZESA apologized for the inconvenience and appealed for public understanding as engineers work to restore the unit.

Zimbabwe has faced recurring electricity supply challenges over the past two decades, driven by ageing infrastructure, limited generation capacity, and low water levels at Kariba Dam. While the commissioning of Hwange Units 7 and 8 in 2023 brought some relief, frequent breakdowns have continued to disrupt supply, forcing industries and households to endure prolonged load-shedding.

The latest fault at Hwange comes at a time when power demand is surging across the country, particularly during the hot season when air conditioning and irrigation systems increase pressure on the grid.

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Energy experts say the outage highlights the need for greater investment in maintenance, renewable energy, and grid modernization to stabilize Zimbabwe’s power supply in the long term.

 

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Tsholotsho to host national commemoration of International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction

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BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

Zimbabwe will on Thursday, this week,  join the rest of the world in commemorating the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction (IDDR), with national events set to take place at Tshino Primary School in Ward 5, Tsholotsho District, along the Tsholotsho–Sipepa road.

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The global day, observed annually, aims to promote a culture of disaster risk awareness and highlight efforts to reduce vulnerability and build resilience in communities.

Speaking to VicFallsLive, Civil Protection Unit Director Nathan Nkomo said this year’s commemoration holds special significance for Tsholotsho, a district that has long struggled with recurrent flooding.

“The whole issue is to reduce, not to increase the occurrence of disasters. And by commemorating, that’s where we share ideas with other people,” Nkomo said.

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He noted that Tsholotsho’s selection as the national host was deliberate, following the successful relocation of families who were affected by flooding at the confluence of the Gwai and Shashani rivers.

“It’s not by accident that we are commemorating in Tsholotsho. We have built 305 houses for people who were affected in the Spepa area, and we will be celebrating in style because we have managed to relocate them,” he said.

“Now we no longer hear of people being flooded in Tsholotsho because of that relocation. So, we will be celebrating in style for Tshini and Sawudweni.”

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The relocations, carried out under government’s disaster recovery and housing programs, have been hailed as a success story in proactive disaster risk management.

Looking ahead to the cyclone season, Nkomo said funding remains the major challenge in preparedness and response.

“We cannot preempt to say there are challenges yet, but historically, since we’ve dealt with COVID-19 and Cyclone Idai, the issue of funds has always been critical,” he said.

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“This year, we are dealing with cyclones at a time when even our development partners have dwindling resources. So, funding will take centre stage in our deliberations, to see how best we can respond with the little we have. The whole idea, when you go to war, is not the question of numbers, but of strategy and how to win.”

The International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction is observed globally every October 13, but Zimbabwe’s national commemorations are being held later this year to align with local preparedness programs and community-based activities.

 

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