Policy& Practice Brief Knowledge for du rable peace The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Border Communities: The Case of Chipinge – Zimbabwe PPB Authors: Mr Owen Mangiza and Dr Joshua Chakawa #051 March 2021 Executive summary his Policy and Practice Brief (PPB) discusses the implications of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on border communities, principally in relation to border controls by governments and trans-border activities by community T members living close to the border in Zimbabwe. This is done with a special focus on the Chipinge district to the south- east of the country, which shares the border with Mozambique. The PPB argues that the border has become the lifeline of the Chipinge communities. Therefore, with the outbreak of COVID-19, efforts to regulate the movement of people across the border have served to weaken their economic and social base, while simultaneously promoting illicit deals along the border as people try to earn a living and interact. The brief further argues that the porous nature of the border has kept such border communities on high alert since people are increasingly using illegal entry points (bush paths), which expose them to further dangers in addition to the pandemic. This is happening amidst the lockdown instituted on 30 March 2020 in Zimbabwe and the closure of the border by the Zimbabwean and Mozambican governments. COVID-19 has increased the suffering of the communities in Chipinge. Among other problems, they are still trying to recover from the damage caused by cyclone Idai and the Mozambican Civil War, and they live in fear of earth tremors in Mozambique that often affect Chipinge. However, for some, it is still business as usual, and they are taking longer to accept the ‘new normal.’ This brief, therefore, discusses the impact of COVID-19 on some of the communities that occupy the vast area of land along the Mozambique-Zimbabwe border, from Rusitu Valley to Mahenye in Chipinge. This Policy & Practice Brief forms part of ACCORD’s knowledge production work to inform peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding. 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Map No. 4210 Rev. 2 UNITED NATIONS Department of Field Support December 2017 Geospatial Information Section (formerly Cartographic Section) Introduction Eskinder Debebe The outbreak of COVID-19 has greatly affected the world, with death as its worst manifestation. It has not spared Africans, with border communities in some ways worse affected than elsewhere. The pandemic has brought a change in routine and survival strategies for communities and increased vigilance in terms of border controls. For Chipinge, this has not been the only tragedy in recent years. Some residents are still trying to come to terms with the disastrous World Food Programme (WFP) distributes food in effects of the 2019 cyclone Idai, the scare caused the areas impacted by cyclones Idai and Kenneth, by recurrent earth tremors along the border which hit just a few weeks apart in March and with Mozambique, as well as the effects of the April 2019. More than 600 people perished during Idai alone; the effects of the two cyclones Mozambican Civil War on border communities in combined left approximately 2.2 million people Chipinge. in need of assistance. The social and cultural ties that developed over the years among communities from either side of the border, lamentably, have been compromised continue with the lives they were used to before as a result of the pandemic. Members of the the pandemic. Criminal activities, such as the border communities are now exposed to smuggling of goods, are on the rise as people try dangers, as they continue to use illegal entry to make ends meet. This threatens the lives of points, most of which are bush paths, in order to the people, as there is a great danger of carrying 2 The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Border Communities: The Case of Chipinge – Zimbabwe S di Bagno the virus into their communities. People live in fear of contracting the deadly virus due to their proximity to the Mozambique-Zimbabwe border. This has become increasingly worrisome with cases of local transmissions on the rise in Zimbabwe. The new requirement on the community to report border jumpers to traditional leaders and the need for traditional leaders to remain on high alert have changed the fabric of society. Some people from Mozambique have always crossed A section of a refugee camp in Doroi, the border to Zimbabwe to provide labour on Mozambique. By early 1978, over 40 000 refugees the estates along the border, and some come from Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) had crossed to conduct private trade business. This has over to Mozambique. complicated tracing and controlling those who might bring the pandemic to the community. Anglo-Portuguese treaty, the border has remained artificial.1 The border was intended to cut people of common origin, religion, ethnicity, language, marriage, and blood off from one another.2 The Ndau people are found on either side of the border between the two countries, and for The Ndau people“ are found on either most of them, either side of the border is home. side of the border between the two The common Ndau language and identity has kept the people united and made movements across the countries, and for most of them, borders easy, for the people are not strangers away from home. While there are restricted official ports either side of the border is home of entry, which regulated movement as early as the colonial period, there are numerous bush paths that Africans use to cross the border and where nobody has been able to restrict their travel.3 Thus, ” the border has remained highly porous to this day. With most of the border communities being in Cross-border migration between Chipinge and rural areas, little attention has been paid to the Mozambique has long been the order of the day as hazard that the pandemic can cause, despite the people responded to economic, political and social efforts being made by healthcare personnel to forces in their countries. Many Mozambicans made educate people. Social distancing, the wearing Zimbabwe their new home during Mozambique’s of masks, sanitising, and general hygiene have civil war from 1975, when their original homes not been observed by some people, thereby became uninhabitable. This resulted in most of exposing the communities to health risks. Some them being housed as refugees at the Tongogara communities, such as the Tongogara Refugee Refugee Camp in Chipinge, Zimbabwe, where some Camp, are at great risk as a result of their set up. are still found to this day as displaced Mozambican nationals. Additionally, from colonial times, many The border people from Mozambique have been crossing the The Mozambique-Zimbabwe border, which border into Zimbabwe, mingling with communities embraces Chipinge district on one side, and such as those in Chipinge, to access services at Mozambican communities on the other, is a schools, clinics, and grinding mills, as well as colonial establishment, like almost all borders employment in the many estates in Chipinge on the African continent. While it was primarily district. This was necessitated by low employment meant to demarcate the spheres of influence of opportunities for Africans in Mozambique under the Portuguese and the British through the 1891 Portuguese rule.4 The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on Border Communities: The Case of Chipinge – Zimbabwe 3 KB Mpofu / ILO The situation began to change from mid-2000, which witnessed an increased flow of people from Zimbabwe to the Mozambique side due to the economic meltdown in Zimbabwe.5 This was more common among communities such as those in Chipinge, whose people found it economical to walk to the nearest shopping centres in Mozambique, such as Maridheya, Espungabeira and Gogoi, for basic commodities.