. and prostitution has become the way of life in the area. Corruption thrives among both ordinary people and, especially, public servants. The Zimbabwean police and soldiers can frequently be seen in the area using their influence to fill their pockets.
Residents in the area earn their living by exchanging Zimbabwean bearer cheques for foreign currency to buy scarce commodities across the border. Residents say Zimbabwe is corrupt beyond repair. “Everyone in Zimbabwe is a thief,” says Mary Marufu, one of the residents. She says she was employed by a government minister to exchange foreign currency and used the commission to raise her family, but now is running that same business for herself.
According to residents, the police and soldiers are the big employers and owners of Black-market businesses at Beitbridge, running flea markets and exchanging Zimbabwean Dollars to Rands. “If you examine this issue of exchanging foreign currency with Black market standard, you will find couple of public servants behind it”, said Marufu. Police vehicles and soldiers can usually be seen in the area, off loading goods to be sold at flea markets.
Residents say the police and soldiers work together with the “magumaguma”, thugs in Shona. These robbers and conman cross the Zimbabwean border to South Africa at Messina to buy scarce commodities like groceries and detergent and sell them at the Beitbridge rank. In the meantime, government officials who are supposed to maintain law and order seek to line their pockets through illegal trading instead of making life better for citizens.
Post published in: News