The Sunday News
Vincent Gono, Features Editor
IT is given that Zimbabwe is an Agrarian economy and evidence is there for all to see especially when one takes into cognisance the number of people directly or indirectly employed in the agricultural industry and those that derive their economic livelihoods from agricultural produce.
The importance of agriculture can therefore never be overemphasised in any economy that seeks primary self sustenance and poverty eradication among its population. And to show how agriculture plays a part as the economic blood-giving vein that could not be ignored, even the metropolitan areas have allocated suitable spaces within the city for fresh and other farm produce to be traded.
Such areas are commonly referred to as vegetable markets and are usually inner city markets occupying a certain number of streets or avenues. They provide fresh and bulk farm produce such as potatoes, onions, tomatoes, eggs and any other vegetable types as well as a variety of farm fruits at affordable price to city dwellers.
They are a little divorced from the long distance bus termini markets such as Mbare in Harare, Kudzanai in Gweru, Mucheke in Masvingo, Sakubva in Mutare and Renkini in Bulawayo in that these usually target rural going travellers and most of the produce is not as fresh as the inner city vegetable markets.
And just because there is freshness and affordability, people throng these inner city vegetable market places to buy for family consumption while others buy in bulk for resell at their mini makeshift places at shops strewn in their respective residential locations in the cities.
In Bulawayo the inner city vegetable market occupies the bigger part of 5th Avenue. In separate interviews to get an insight into the operations of Emarket as the area is popularly known in town it was gathered that the area that is a little out of the central business district hardly goes to sleep.
When it does, it is usually around midnight. It wakes up a little quite early too – as early as 4am giving the commuters transport operators early business from high density locations’ elderly women with cardboard-boxes who will be going to fetch fresh stuff for resale and stock their own small businesses as well.
Thompson Matarirano Majoni who is one of the directors of G and M Take-Away said the market does not go to sleep at all. He said to show how powerful the small area was to the economy, the prices of farm produce in the city were directed and controlled from 5th Avenue, adding that if the market was to close today a lot of people would be affected.
“This place is surely a hive of activity. The amount of money that you can see exchanging hands in this dirty avenue is shocking. Some of the guys you see here looking shabbily dressed and ordinary drive the latest sleek vehicles yet they spend their time here selling their farm produce. I can tell you this area is where Bulawayo’s money is concentrated because supermarkets big and small are always coming here for fresh stocks of vegetables.
“It supplies the city with potatoes for the chips that we buy in various food outlets as well as some of the fruits and eggs,” he said.
He added that the people there know the value of money. “They are not sumptuous and most of them detest junk food. They like African dishes that are heavy and we have resorted to giving them just that,” he added.
It is in this avenue where no matter the amount of cleaning will never be as smart as the rest of the city. The shops along the avenue are not upmarket and spacious. They are tiny compartments that are usually dimly lit.
Most of 5th Avenue’s backyard alleys are characterised by piles of rotten agricultural produce from where emanates a bad stench that fills the nostrils but those that work there are never perturbed. They have perhaps grown used to their work station.
Part of the avenue defines dirty. And roads are barricaded making both parking and driving space very limited.
The avenue is more cosmopolitan than Bulawayo itself. People come from all over the country intent on business but much of the suppliers are from Manicaland Province’s Mutare, Chipinge, Nyanga and Honde Valley where the bulk of oranges, bananas, avocados and potatoes come from. A few are from Gokwe, Beitbridge and Masvingo while some come from as far as Murehwa and Mtoko.
“We are a group of about six women from Nyanga. We hired a haulage truck to ferry avocados and bananas from our home area and we are living off the business of bringing the fruits into Bulawayo because they are abundant in our area.
“We arrived on Tuesday around midnight and we hired boys here to offload the truck.
“As you can see much of the stock is gone. We are likely going to leave today (Thursday) after all our stock has been bought,” said Ms Elina Gwata.
Asked where they will be sleeping for the days they will be in Bulawayo, she said they were in business and their business demands that they forgo some of the luxuries and put up at the pavements of shops where they would be guarding their stock.
“We try to maximise on profits so going to lodges or hotels will eat into our profits. Besides it’s usually not more than two days and we go home with our money,” she added.
It would be expecting too much from 5th Avenue’s market area to see people in jackets and ties. Those that frequent the area are usually in overalls and work suits as well as industrial boots.
Not that smartness is prohibited but the line of business makes smartness taboo. It is like going to the fields wearing a suit.
The fact that the avenue rarely goes to sleep makes it a favourite for company looking vagabonds most of whom drink illicit intoxicating brews to drown their sorrows and uneventful lives as well as thieves who shift bases around midnight to tout at Macs Garage.
The avenue where the vegetable market is, by nature of its business where people come and go makes thieving an enterprising activity as goods stolen are quickly disposed of through selling to people who would have brought their orders with minimal chances of either staying long or coming back to the city.
It has therefore become an avenue that calls for so much alertness — an avenue where blinking is taboo. Where young men in tight-fitting trousers that hardly touch their ankles, tucked in T-shirts and small hats will be selling right from their pockets and satchels an assortment of goodies ranging from cellphones, shoes and other clothing items at very low prices that even defeat the logic of buying from Khotama.
Others who have invaded the area are people who sell second hand tools that are usually found in hardware shops as well as some who sell books and old magazines.
But with all its dark side, the place is true testimony that there is money in farming. It gives credence to the famous words of the late Father Zimbabwe Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo when he said, “Nxa ufuna imali phendulela ibala elithi mali . . . lithi lima.” Loosely translated to mean if you want money you should be prepared to work the land and get it.
