The Sunday Mail
Africa Moyo and Tendai Chara
Clad in tattered clothes with the majority of the males not putting on shirts as if to save the few clothes they have, villagers from Chitekete Village in Gokwe could be seen toiling under the scorching sun as they mould bricks.
Every age group and sex is represented here — children of school-going age, middle-aged men and women and even the elderly — all playing different roles in a desperate bid to eke out an honest living.
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Soul Ndlovu (32), is among the more than 200 villagers who, on a daily basis, troop to the Sengwa coalfields where they eke a living through moulding bricks.
Following the closure of the Sengwa Coal Mine two years ago and the dramatic fall in cotton prices, the majority of the Chitekete villagers have turned to brick-making as a source of livelihood.
Like most parts of the country that received low rainfall, the villagers’ crops have since wilted and a drought is clearly imminent.
“Brick-making is our only source of livelihood. As you can see, the crops have already wilted and cotton prices have, in recent years, been very low. We have no choice but to toil in these difficult conditions,” Ndlovu said.
Partnering his neighbour, the two families produces more than 5 000 bricks every month.
Sadly, the brick-making venture, which involves hard manual labour, is not a lucrative one.
The bricks, which are burnt using coal from the nearby abandoned coalfields, are then sold for a song to both the local business community and to companies that come to the fields from as far afield as Gokwe town, Kwekwe and even Gweru.
Ndlovu is not happy with the price that the business community are offering. “I feel that we are being exploited. The buyers are taking our bricks for next to nothing. The US$15 that we are paid for a thousand bricks is nothing,” Ndlovu said, as his wife, Nothando, nodded in agreement.
According to Ndlovu, businesspeople that operate at the nearby Chitekete Growth Point are the biggest culprits when it comes to buying the bricks at low prices.
Taking advantage of the fact that those that pay well do not frequent the fields, the local business community is offering as little as US$8 for 1 000 bricks
Elsewhere in the country, farm bricks are being sold for between US$45 and US$50 per thousand.
The dire need to buy food forces the villagers to take the little money on offer. Emmanuel Tshuma, Ndlovu’s partner, blames the brick moulders themselves for the low prices.
“As brick makers, our weakest point is the fact that we are not united. Instead of coming up with a competitive price guide, we are always fighting amongst ourselves for clients. We need to be organised, otherwise we will die paupers,” Ndlovu said.
The emergence of middlemen has also compounded the brick-makers’ woes.
Trust Makovere is one of the middlemen who sub-contracts the brick makers and reap huge profits.
“Currently, I have sub-contracted 20 people and I provide them with food. My clients from Gweru will buy the bricks directly from me. Some of the workers often complain about the money that I pay but they must understand that we are into business for the profit,” Makovere, who hails from Masvingo, said.
In attempts to avoid dealing with the middlemen, the majority of the brick makers now work in partnerships with other families.
“We are moulding the bricks as families. Everyone realised that it is better to partner other families as opposed to working for a contractor. The men does the digging whilst the women fetch water,” said Mr Elias Sinan’andu, a former mine worker.
The majority of the workers are, however, women.
As the women were busy making the bricks, most of the men were looking after cattle. Conditions at the fields exposes the workers to communicable diseases as there are no ablution facilities and the villagers use the bush to relieve themselves.
Given the fact that the brick-moulding exercise is taking place near a tributary to the Sengwa River, villagers that live downstream are exposed to diseases.
While the magnitude of environmental degradation is anyone’s guess, the villagers have tried to minimise harm by refraining from cutting down trees to complete their brick-moulding exercise. Instead, the villagers use the coal from the nearby mine to burn the bricks.
“We were told by officials from the Environmental Management Authority to (EMA) to stop cutting down trees. So we are now using pieces of coal which we get from Sengwa Mine which was closed two years ago,” Mr Bhedias Dhambura said.
Ms Sikhangezile Maputi, the EMA environmental officer responsible for Gokwe North, professed ignorance about the villagers’ activities.
“I have not yet heard about that since I have not been to that part of the community lately. Let me call my provincial office and notify them that there is something like that happening on the ground.
“When our officers get there, they will teach the brick-makers the best ways of operating without causing a lot of harm to the environment,” said Ms Maputi. Since the fall of the cotton prices on the world market, Gokwe villagers have been struggling to make ends meet with some of them resorting to poaching game in the nearby Chizarira Game Park.
According to the villagers, some of the poachers have been shot and killed whilst others were lucky to escape with minor injuries.
The majority of the Chitekete villagers have, however, tried to eke an honest living through brick-moulding.
This is despite the fact that the prices for the bricks are very low.
