ZIMBABWE’S LOOMING CRISIS: HIV AND TB ON THE FARM

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Published: August 8, 2008

ZIMBABWE’S LOOMING CRISIS: HIV AND TB ON THE FARM

By Thulani Mpofu

Zimbabwe’s farms have long been in the news for the government’s controversial programme of settling black farmers on white-owned agricultural land. But risky sexual behavior which can fuel the HIV epidemic is emerging as a major problem in the countryside. Death rates are high, and as one farm supervisor says, ‘who will do the menial tasks?’

It is their favourite – and only – rendezvous to socialise over drinks on this sprawling cattle ranch in the Fort Rixon area, 160 km east of Bulawayo town.

This blazing October Sunday is no exception. It’s their free hour, and farm labourers have gathered at their local beer outlet – a nondescript, low-lying, green shack – drinking opaque beer and playing draughts.

These days, umkhumbi, a home-brew made from fermented marula fruits is the popular drink, owing to the spiraling price of bottled beer.

Gathered in small mixed groups of men and women, in the shade, they share the potent brew, passing the gourd around for gulps.

“This place used to be busy in the 1990s. There were many of us here then,” said Sipho Njobvu, 56, the farm foreman, sitting with colleagues in one group.

“But now there’s just a few of us left.  Some of our colleagues have left the farm and others are now late” – meaning they are dead.

Njobvu does not know the cause of their deaths, but says most were diagnosed with tuberculosis (TB) before wasting away and dying.
Of those that remain, some are too frail to perform menial farming chores.

“As the foreman, I’m the one who looks at their requests for time-off, so I know who is feeling well and who is not. We have had about six deaths this year alone. If it is AIDS, it has finished us,” he said.

A family man of Zambian origin, Njobvu knows about AIDS, and knows that condoms can minimise HIV-infection.  But he says there is no programme to issue condoms on the farm.  

He also knows – as does the government – that if the mortality rate on the farm continues there is bound to be a major labour crisis soon.

“Work here is tough. I cannot assign a frail person to dig up a pit. I send such people for lighter jobs, like rounding up cattle.  But who will do the menial tasks?”

The Farm Community Trust of Zimbabwe (FCTZ), a non-governmental organisation that assists farm workers, estimates that before the land reform process was launched by the government in 2000, between 320,000 and 350,000 agricultural workers were employed on commercial farms owned by 4,500 white farmers in this southern African country. Their dependents numbered around two million, or about 15 percent of the population.

FCTZ director Godfrey Magaramombe acknowledged that current health strategies tend to ignore farm labourers, resulting in a high prevalence rate of HIV and AIDS on farms.

“Traditionally, commercial farms and mines had the highest rate of HIV and AIDS cases in the country,” he said.
“Now, there has been a noticeable decrease, reflecting the general national scenario. However, the incidence remains high on farms and mines when compared with other locations.”

Zimbabwe’s HIV prevalence rate has been declining over the past few years, but remains one of the highest in the world. It has dropped from a high of about 24 percent in 2003 to about 18 percent in 2005 owing to increased condom use, behaviour change and greater awareness of the disease.

But poverty, illiteracy, ignorance, unemployment, lack of health facilities and high mobility of populations are fuelling HIV and AIDS on farms, Magaramombe said.

“HIV and AIDS are driven by poverty which is endemic on farms because of poor wages,” he said.

“Mobility is very high on farms as workers tend to leave their homes for jobs, some of them seasonal. There is also the question of early and serial marriages – girls on farms tend to get married early and by the time they turn 21 they would have married and broken up with four or five men.”

Because of lack of jobs, he added, girls often engage in casual sex with multiple partners, especially supervisors, to secure employment, thus increasing their risk of contracting HIV.

Most farms do not have schools, and literacy levels are low. “A significant amount of prevention and treatment programmes come in written form and if you cannot read, it limits your ability to comprehend the messages,” Magaramombe added.

Mitigating the impact of HIV and AIDS among farm workers is a huge challenge to Zimbabwe’s agrarian economy. Official statistics show that about 70 percent of the country’s approximately 13 million people depend on agriculture, which provides more than 60 percent of raw materials used in the manufacturing sector.

According to Dr Owen Mugurungi, national co-ordinator of the HIV/AIDS and Tuberculosis programme in the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare, the HIV prevalence rate on farms and mines is always higher than the national average.

“When the national average was at 24 percent, on farms, the prevalence rate was around 26 percent,” he said. “So when the rate is at 18 percent nationally at present, the farm average or on mines could be around 20 percent or slightly higher.”
One factor driving HIV and AIDS on farms, he noted, is risky sexual behaviour.

“It has been established that there is very high-risk sexual behaviour there, perhaps because farms are often isolated. So you find out that prostitution is a key source of entertainment despite the risks,” Mugurungi added.
Poverty is endemic. Farm labourers are Zimbabwe’s lowest paid workers, earning Zim $1.6 million (about US$50) per month – when there is work. 
In an economic environment where the prices of goods and services are continuously rising with inflation soaring at about 6,600 per cent, the money is only enough to buy three bars of laundry soap.

The government is well aware of the looming health crisis on the farms. In its HIV and AIDS Strategic Plan for 2006-2010, the government – supported by UNAIDS – identifies several immediate threats from the epidemic on the farm, including a weakened labour force, lower agricultural productivity and reduced food security.

“Agricultural practices will be reviewed in the light of a weakened labour force and the increasing number of households that are unable to feed themselves using traditional farming methods. Modified less labour intensive methods will be promulgated as needed,” the document says.

A trade unionist representing farm labourers suggested that poverty was driving female workers to engage in sex work to supplement their low incomes, exposing them to abuse.

Getrude Hambira, secretary general of the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ), wants the government to revive a pre-land reforms programme in which government-trained farm health workers helped identify and administer basic treatment for sexually transmitted diseases.

However, following the land reforms programme, the scheme was abandoned. This has left a huge gap, as there are few or no health facilities on most farms.

“If the HIV and AIDS crisis on farms is left unchecked, there could be a serious labour shortage in the country,” Hambira warned. – 2010 Features

Editor: Thulani Mpofu is a Zimbabwean freelance writer.

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