- One sector of Zimbabwe's depressed economy is experiencing boom times. For those providing services for the dead, business is very healthy.
An area on the western fringes of the central business district in the capital, Harare, has been dubbed 'Death Valley' in recognition of the concentration of businesses like undertakers, coffin manufacturers and funeral insurance companies.
Although the capital has six registered funeral parlours, a further 21 unregistered parlours have sprouted up as a result of high demand for funeral services. Attempts by the authorities to shut them down merely drove them underground and they have reappeared as backyard businesses across the city.
According to the government's National AIDS Council, established to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic, at least 14,000 people die each month of AIDS-related diseases. Analysts attribute the high death rate to low nutritional levels and limited access to ARVs.
Humanitarian agencies say at least 1.3 million people are in need of food aid, while UNAIDS estimates that one in five sexually active adults is infected with HIV; 83 percent of the country's roughly 12 million people live on US$2 or less a day.
Sebastian Chinaire, of the Grassroots Organisation for People Living with HIV and AIDS, which advocates for the provision of ARVs to HIV-positive people, said "We only have 30,000 people who are receiving ARVs, and yet there are as many as 600,000 people who need the live-saving drugs but we are unable to access them. The government has stopped supplying us with food packs, which were good for those on ARVs, but affected people cannot take the drugs on empty stomachs. We need drugs and food."
Joseph Chinemano, a manager at a 'death valley' funeral parlour, told IRIN that their industry was probably the most profitable in Zimbabwe. "There are not too many players in our kind of work, and with such a high death rate in Zimbabwe ... we are assured of a steady supply of customers."
The economic meltdown since President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF government embarked on its fast-track land reform policy six years ago, in which white farmers' land was seized for redistribution to landless blacks, has taken annual inflation to around 1,000 percent - the highest in the world - and unemployment to over 70 percent, with chronic shortages of fuel, food, energy and medical supplies.
Simba Chandada, who lost his job as a carpenter at a large furniture manufacturing company in 2000, has now turned his hand to making coffins in Mbare, a poor neighbourhood in Harare.
"The established coffin manufactures have a disadvantage in that they have fixed prices for their products. I negotiate prices with my clients and can also arrange terms for payment if they have no money to make an immediate payment," Chandada told IRIN.
The undertakers' booming trade is putting pressure on Harare's cemetaries. Harare Housing and Community Services, a municipal department, said in a recent report that the capital's cemeteries, already at 70 percent capacity, were expected to be filled within the next 12 months. This has already occurred in Mutare on the Mozambican border in Manicaland Province, where the two main cemeteries are full, forcing residents to travel to the remaining burial ground 15km beyond the city limits.
Harare's authorities are considering other ways of disposing of bodies, although cremation runs against traditional burial customs.
"Given the shortages of land for burials, the department of housing and community services is considering the issue of cremation as an alternative and a national debate will be initiated on the issue. There is a critical shortage of burial space and the city is currently taking long-term measures to address the problem and alternative land has been opened up," the community services report said.
Burials used to take place on weekdays but are now also conducted at weekends, providing a lucrative market place to vendors, in defiance of bylaws forbidding such practices in graveyards.
Tina Chikanga, a graveyard vendor and widowed mother of four, said, "There is a big market of mourners who are prepared to buy fruit and cool drinks because of the ... [heat]. I will continue to provide that kind of service as long as I do not have a formal job."
afrol News - It is called "financial inclusion", and it is a key government policy in Rwanda. The goal is that, by 2020, 90 percent of the population is to have and actively use bank accounts. And in only four years, financial inclusion has doubled in Rwanda.
afrol News - The UN's humanitarian agencies now warn about a devastating famine in Sudan and especially in South Sudan, where the situation is said to be "imploding". Relief officials are appealing to donors to urgently fund life-saving activities in the two countries.
afrol News - Fear is spreading all over West Africa after the health ministry in Guinea confirmed the first Ebola outbreak in this part of Africa. According to official numbers, at least 86 are infected and 59 are dead as a result of this very contagious disease.
afrol News - It is already a crime being homosexual in Ethiopia, but parliament is now making sure the anti-gay laws will be applied in practical life. No pardoning of gays will be allowed in future, but activist fear this only is a signal of further repression being prepared.
afrol News / Africa Renewal - Ethiopia's ambitious plan to build a US$ 4.2 billion dam in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, 40 km from its border with Sudan, is expected to provide 6,000 megawatts of electricity, enough for its population plus some excess it can sell to neighbouring countries.
front page
| news
| countries
| archive
| currencies
| news alerts login
| about afrol News
| contact
| advertise
| español