Surviving the Covid-19 lockdown: Zimbabwe’s informal sector, 2020–2021

Abstract

SUMMARY This briefing explores the strategies deployed by informal workers in Harare during Zimbabwe’s Covid-19 lockdown period. It argues that informal workers responded to the lockdown regulations by embracing survival and accumulation strategies which had broader implications for the African continent by ultimately shaping patterns of public health, inequality, authoritarianism and corruption. The briefing provides an example of the consequences when African states unthinkingly imposed unsolicited Covid-19 restrictions that had the unintended effect of devastating a vital part of their economy and with it, the livelihoods of the poorest majority.