Annabella Nyoni is a 44-year-old mother of three, who works at a horticulture estate just outside Harare. The estate produces mainly roses for export. Hivos interviewed her end of January 2020 and followed up three months later on her journey.
Her oldest child is a pre-teen doing grade 7; the middle child is doing grade 3 while the last is in pre-school. Her monthly wage is $426 (USD12) but after paying her dues to the trade union, she takes home $360 (USD 10.50). She has lost US$5 to inflation since the beginning of January when her wage was worth US$17.
“It is simply not enough. I cannot afford to supplement the 10kg of corn meal and the packet of beans I get monthly from the employer. My children sometimes go to school without having breakfast. They need porridge in the morning but we can rarely afford to have that throughout the month. The corn meal we get we try to have two meals a day and to brew ‘maheu’, a drink we make by adding malt to corn meal and letting it ferment. It’s our only refreshment,” she said with a cynical smile.