Poverty piles on pressure for students in Zimbabwe

By Jeffrey Moyo

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AA) – Selling sweets at the university campus has become the order of the day for Francis Gwenhure, 22, as he struggles to supplement his mother’s income.

The mother, Tracy Gwenhure, 45, is a single parent and works as a vendor selling trinkets in the Zimbabwean capital Harare.

Francis, who is studying history at a local university, helps out by hawking some of his mother's wares at the campus even though it is illegal to do so.

Francis has to smuggle in his bag wares like sweets to university every time he goes for lectures.

He has now become a common feature at the campus alongside numerous other students who have been pushed by poverty into vending.

“I have to support my mother who has been a vendor ever since I was born. If I do this while I study, at least by the end of the day I will have some money to take home to my mother,” Gwenhure told Anadolu Agency.

The poverty faced by many students in Zimbabwe like Gwenhure mounts at a time when the world commemorates the International Students Day, celebrated on Nov. 17 every year.

Historically, the day is an international observance of student activism, commemorating the anniversary of the 1939 Nazi storming of the University of Prague after demonstrations against the killing of Jan Opletal, a student, who was shot at a Czechoslovak Independence Day rally in resistance against Nazism.

- Rising inflation

Gwenhure lives in a shack at a squatter camp just outside Harare with his mother.

But despite his conditions, he remains hopeful that education will show him a way out.

Getting to university is another issue he faces as the Southern African nation has a sub-par public transportation system.

“Most of the times my mother won’t be having money because we would have spent the little from vending to buy food and other basics at home and without money, at times I just skip lectures because I won’t be able to catch the public bus to college,” said Gwenhure.

Added to these woes is the rising inflation amid the pandemic which has made college fees exorbitant.

Student leaders have blamed Zimbabwe’s political leadership for the state of affairs.​​​​​​​

Tapiwanashe Chiriga, secretary general of the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU), said: “We have an economy run down by negligence, corruption and incompetence. With the COVID-19 effects hitting hard, students have been pounded even harder. Paying the ever rising and exorbitant fees while not exactly attending lectures for a full semester, feels like robbery,”

According to the student group, this year more than 35% students have been forced to defer studies having been barred from examinations after failing to register on time.

“It has been a tough time and access to affordable education has increasingly become a privilege and preserve of the rich and few,” said Chiriga.

- Mental health

Psychologists like Melvin Chawasarira based in Harare have pinned the blame on poverty for rising cases of depression among college students.

“Depression and anxiety symptoms are now rife among tertiary students here because they go in college carrying lots of worries about where they will get their next meal, their rentals for accommodation, and a lot more other things and this is impacting negatively on quality of life and academic attainment,” Chawasarira told Anadolu Agency.

Yet the Zimbabwean government has for years insisted it is taking care of the college students’ welfare.

Just three years ago, the government signed 16 Memoranda of Understanding with the private sector for infrastructure development that includes student accommodation at institutions of tertiary and higher education.

“The Government has signed 16 MoUs for infrastructure development at institutions of higher and tertiary learning in Zimbabwe,” said Higher Education Minister Amon Murwira in 2019.

In 2019, the government committed to disbursing loans to support learners in colleges and universities, but amid escalating corruption, students have claimed they have not accessed them.

“It’s not easy to get those loans because you need to be linked to someone influential,” said Gwenhure.