Critical Minerals Or A Loaf Of Bread

📅 Published: August 17, 2025

📰 Source: thezimbabwean

Curated by AllZimNews.com

Later, outside the supermarket, an old man asked me if I could help him with a dollar to buy a loaf of bread.

There was an icy wind blowing dust across the car park and we both shivered a little.

I pressed a note into his hand and he clapped his hands in thanks. “I can work for you, to pay it back,” he offered, “any kind of job, I don’t mind,” and in that moment I saw the face of Zimbabwe looking back at me.

It’s a look of shame and pride, determination and desperation all mixed up into one.

According to our National Statistics Agency (Zimstat), Zimbabwe’s annual inflation rate, as measured by the local ZiG currency, was 95. 8% in July 2025.

Alongside that huge number is the fact that 76% of people work in the informal sector.

The World Bank says Zimbabwe is home to one of the world’s largest informal economies where three quarters of all employment is informal and the sale of second-hand clothes is the most common trade. (The Standard) Zimbabwe’s latest response to our huge informal economy has been to stamp on it with Big Boots in a new crackdown on street vendors.

A few months ago, they chased vendors off the streets saying they weren’t paying tax or licences to government despite the fact Vendors pay vending fees to local councils every single day.

This time Local government Minister, Daniel Garwe, says that vendors selling their goods on pavements at night “have brought with it illicit drug and substance dealings which is a threat to health, economy and national security. ” Minister Garwe then announced that with immediate effect the importation and selling of second-hand clothing is banned as is street and night vending.

In two sentences Minster Garwe stripped away the ability of over 70% of people to buy food for their families, keep their children in school and pay rent at the end of every month.

Humanity and empathy have gone out the window.

The very people sitting in government supposed to be representing us, have forgotten what it’s like to be us.