The ManicaPost
Moffat Mungazi
Post Correspondent
IT is almost a year since coronavirus struck these shores, thereby forcing Government to enforce national lockdowns as a measure of containing the pandemic.
Coupled with health guidelines recommended by experts such as the World Health Organisation and Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, some of the lockdown regulations stipulate that businesses providing essential goods and services such as health facilities, supermarkets or food outlets, fuel stations, authorised transporters as well as electricity, water, sewerage and sanitary suppliers or distributors operate within set times in compliance with the protocol.
This in turn means reduced trading hours for companies.
With businesses taking a severe knock, some workers were laid off by employers operating below capacity. Most people’s livelihoods were inevitably eroded.
At the height of the highest level of the lockdown, those falling outside the essential services bracket had to completely shut shop as efforts to curb the pandemic intensified.
However, there has been a form of respite following relaxation of some of the measures.
Predictably, other means of getting round this setback as the “new normal” took hold were devised.
Many entrepreneurs, either out of necessity or desperation, devised innovative methods of going about business and staying afloat.
While some folded, the smarter ones stayed in the game.
They flowed with the tide as they battled to circumvent continued loss of income. Wrapping their heads around the difficult circumstances, enterprising entities and individuals put their minds, hands and energy to something else to fashion out other means of earning an extra coin.
Most have now resorted to monetising their skills, becoming more innovative and inventive as a way of surviving in the face of the ravaging affects of Covid-19 while abiding by the health guidelines and lockdown restrictions.
To skirt around the Covid-19 blues, most came up with bankable ideas and rewarding plans. Just as there is now a new normal of living in times of the pandemic, it has also required people to figure out a new way of thinking in terms of making money.
The Manica Post this week spoke to some of the people in Mutare who have since engaged in other income-generating ventures to ameliorate the situation and mitigate the pandemic’s impact while supplementing their earnings.
Obey “Big Fish” Hove (events and entertainment promoter)
We are presently in strange times wrought by Covid-19.
While the lockdown is necessary, it has been a very difficult period for us.
For a while, I had stayed on the sidelines and just watched events unfold hoping that things would quickly return to normal, but after days turned into weeks and months, I had to act.
And act I did because the entertainment business which I specialise in had been pushed into the shade.
With the leisure outlet I run being forced to close, I had to turn to other things to continue making money.
I have since joined forces with my wife, Loreen, who was already running an interior decor and designs business.
Simbarashe “Hungwe Vanorema” Muchita
(Musician and Hungwe Stars band leader)
Having live shows banned owing to the outlawing of gatherings in the face of the pandemic has actually come as a blessing in disguise because it compelled us to be enterprising and explore other avenues.
It is not business as usual as we have found other means of surviving.
I have teamed up with some members of my band to venture into farming. We are growing tobacco, maize, beans and sweet potatoes at a plot in Nyazura.
We have also just started rearing goats and chicken for eggs and meat. We are also keen to venture into piggery and cattle ranching.
Agriculture is a lucrative business that I wish I had gotten into it much earlier.
As a novice, I am so impressed by how this project took off and is shaping that I am actually going to continue with farming as a side scheme to my vocation as a musician.
Working on the plot also means that I am now spending most of my time here as I avoid crowded places.
It has also curtailed unnecessary travelling.
To drive the message home that people need to explore other avenues of making money, we have since released a single track titled ‘Pepuka’.
The composition urges people to think outside the box; especially youths. As the song suggests, we have to wake up to today’s realities exacerbated by coronovirus and not play victim, but be proactive in fending for ourselves.
Herbert “Master Hubba” Simango (Fitness trainer)
I had heavily relied on a single means of making money at the gym, but have since diversified.
Fitness training had been my forte, but since fitness centres are closed and we cannot carry out any training or work-outs, it forced me back to square one in term of earnings.
Luckily, I had invested in a pick-up truck and this has turned into my new source of income as I am now supplying groceries in Mutare’s outlying areas using it.
I decided to capitalise on people’s limited movement in and out of the city by delivering the goods to them.
I am now a mobile merchandiser and this is a convenient bargain for my customers because it minimises their movements.
I am happy that my eggs are no longer in one basket.
