Zimbabwe Reserve Bank Governor John Mangudya delivers his Monetary Policy Statement in Harare on 20 February 2019, where he announced the establishment of an interbank foreign exchange market in the country officially abandoning the 1:1 exchange rate between the USD and the country’s quasi-currency bond note. Picture: AFP
HARARE – In Zimbabwe, the central bank has told Zimbabweans to ignore an advert on social media advertising cheap commodities at an address in central Harare.
It said the advert was fake and misleading because it used the address and phone number for the central bank and its governor.
The advert for cheap cooking oil, sugar, rice and maize meal urged customers to hurry while stocks last.
It listed the address of the so-called People’s Wholesale and Retail Mart as Number 80, Samora Machel Avenue.
It also gave the mobile number to use for further inquiries.
The problem was that the address given was that of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, and the number posted reportedly belonged to central bank chief John Mangudya.
In a statement posted to Twitter, the RBZ urged Zimbabweans to ignore the message, which it described as unwarranted cyber abuse.
Frustration was mounting in Zimbabwe over rising prices, which many blamed on the government’s current austerity measures.
HARARE, Zimbabwe – With Zimbabwe’s economy in shambles and political tensions rising, leaving the country seems the best option for many who are desperate for jobs. But those dreams often end at the passport office, which doesn’t have enough foreign currency to import proper paper and ink.
A passport now takes no less than a year to be issued. An emergency passport can take months amid a backlog of 280,000 applications, never mind recent ones.
Zimbabweans at the main office in the capital, Harare, have taken to sleeping in line for any chance at being served the following day — and that’s just to submit an application.
Several million Zimbabweans already left for neighboring South Africa and other countries during years of economic turmoil under former leader Robert Mugabe. The hardships have only deepened under current President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took over after Mugabe’s forced resignation in late 2017.
The new government’s slogan “austerity for prosperity” now has a bitter ring.
Unemployment is rampant and inflation is at 75%, the highest since 2009, when Zimbabwe’s currency collapsed under the weight of hyperinflation. Rapid devaluation of the local currency against the U.S. dollar — also used as official currency — has seen basic items such as cooking oil changing prices several times a day. The health sector is collapsing, forcing those who can afford it to seek treatment abroad.
At the passport office, the desperation to escape is all too clear.
“Guys, it’s either we jump the queue or we will have to jump the border,” one teenager told a group of friends plotting to sneak to the front of the line.
Another teen, 19-year-old Brian Ndlovu, said coming to the office makes him “feel like there is really no way out of this country. We are trapped.”
The teens’ plot to jump the queue failed, in large part because those at the front had camped there for days and knew each other by name.
Emma Chirwa said she only reached the front of the line because she had been sleeping outside the office since June 5.
“I was No. 34 on Friday. They served no one. On Thursday, they served 12 people,” she said, huddled in a blanket on Sunday night.
In the biting cold of the Southern Hemisphere’s winter, dozens of people, including women with toddlers, slept on cardboard boxes or in the dust, holding their places. Around midnight, one man parked his motorbike and joined his wife in blankets on the line. People laughed.
Some huddled around a fire of scrap wood taken from the grounds of an adjacent school. A small enterprise has emerged, with some young men holding places in the line for a fee. Others sell pens, food items and foreign currency while a generator powered a photocopy machine.
By daylight, the line snaked for more than a kilometer and included school children in uniform.
A preacher holding a Bible took advantage of the crowd to deliver sermons about resilience and hope. But for many, the spirit is slipping.
For those seeking an emergency passport, the task requires multiple lines and a week of sleeping outside the office. One applies for an ordinary passport, then waits for a chance to upgrade the application to an emergency passport. Those who are booked for a date in 2020 have to join another line to plead for an earlier date.
The delays are due to a lack of foreign currency to import special paper, ink and other materials, as well as machine breakdowns, according to the national passport agency’s registrar-general, Clemence Masango.
The Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, a government body, has described the passport crisis as “a major human rights challenge” and launched an investigation.
In response, officials are promising change.
“We have sourced the foreign currency, and the machine is now working, so the backlog will be cleared soon. We have to bring dignity to our people,” Home Affairs Minister Cain Mathema told The Associated Press on Wednesday, vowing “a return to normalcy” in a month.
But for those badly in need of a legal way out of Zimbabwe, such official statements count for little without action.
In a busy, cramped corridor, people clutching envelopes waited in yet another line outside what they mockingly called the “mercy office.” It is where they plead with senior officials that their situations are dire enough for their emergency passport applications to be processed in days, not months.
One woman said the date she can upgrade her passport application to an emergency one is May 2020.
“My mother needs an urgent medical operation in India,” she said. “She will be dead by then.”
The two agricultural commodities, which are fetching higher export prices, are on the rebound owing to the potential they give to Zimbabwean farmers and companies to earn foreign currency in a country battling a financial squeeze.Most farmers have been taking up tobacco, but this year’s crop has been fetching lower prices. In the Eastern Highlands region near the border with Mozambique, coffee and tea growing is becoming profitable once again.
Tea growing companies in Zimbabwe include Tanganda Tea Company, run by ZSE-listed Meikles, while horticultural concern, Ariston Holdings is also another tea growing company in addition to a handful of co-operatives of local farmers. “Tea production for the six-month period to March 31 improved by 6percent to 1851 tons,” said Paul Spear, the chief executive of Ariston Holdings.
The company said export prices were strong and favourable for its operations. Any company or business operation that generates forex in Zimbabwe is considered better off at a time the local currency has continued to sag down. For Ariston, export sales volumes for tea during the review period strengthened by as much as 18percent, giving the company a much needed financial boost. Prices were also massively stronger too. “Average export prices improved by 13 percent,” said Spear.
Coffee is another crop that is starting to recover in the Eastern Highlands area. Farmers in the area have also received a fresh lease of life after Nespresso launched a coffee product from Zimbabwe last month, putting the country’s prospects and advantages back on the global coffee market.
“For farmers in Zimbabwe’s Eastern Highlands, coffee represents a ticket out of poverty – and farmers are paid in valuable US dollars, which go a long way in transforming the lives of smallholder producers,” said Technoserve, an organisation supporting coffee farmers in Zimbabwe through capacitation.
But the Chimanimani and Chipinge areas, where the crops are grown the most, were recently ravaged by Cyclone Idai and farm and irrigation equipment was destroyed. This has not been a deterrent with Ariston, which is also listed on the ZSE currently processing a $1.5million (R22.15m) insurance claim cover for the tea growing infrastructure that was destroyed.
Zimbabwe has a long history of coffee production and was once one of the producers of Africa’s most sought after coffee varieties. Coffee production from Zimbabwe peaked in the late 1980s, but dropped significantly in the early 2000s because of economic hardship and climate shocks as well as land grabs in 2000.
What appears to be plain porridge quickly takes on a new twist outside the home of Syndon Samakute on a hill looking over the lush Honde Valley in eastern Zimbabwe’s Manicaland province.
It starts out as regular corn meal, but Samakute mixes in a raw egg for protein. Then he adds a bit of butternut squash, and two small scoops of peanut butter.
“It’s easy to cook and very nutritious,” he says. The result is tasty. The peanut butter and squash combine with the porridge for a sweet, buttery flavor.
Samakute took up cooking when his wife, Loice Chideye, invited him to a workshop on nutrition organized by a consortium of groups Oxfam is involved with called INSPIRE. Through the consortium, Oxfam is working in communities to promote gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. Oxfam has a long tradition of tackling gender issues in Zimbabwe, from legal reforms to challenging harmful cultural practices.
The workshop is part of a program, run by the UN and funded by the British government, designed in part to improve food production and reduce persistent malnutrition among children in Manicaland. Samakute was the only husband in the area man enough to attend the all-women training.
INSPIRE encourages couples to re-examine the gender roles they play in their families through an initiative called Gender Action Learning, or GAL. Cooking is now one of the household duties Samakute and his wife share, which is rare in rural Zimbabwe, where patriarchal attitudes run deep.
Samakute and Chideye demonstrate how to make maize porridge fortified with protein from an egg and peanut butter. They say their children are healthier since they diversified their diet. Photo: Brett Eloff/Oxfam
“[Men] consider themselves the head of the household, and they don’t cook,” says Samakute. “I see men fighting new ideas, but their attitudes only lead us to underdevelopment. Men need to work with their wives.”
“We have lost these old views,” he adds firmly. “And we’re happy. Our children are healthy.”
Transforming families
The GAL program stretches across Zimbabwe and has reached 25,000 farmers. One of them is Cremio Kausiyo. When he first heard about GAL, he was suspicious.
“We thought they wanted to come and change some of our behavior, and what we are as men in our culture,” he says, standing next to his wife, Deliwe Kakumura, on a windy, gray morning outside their home in northern Zimbabwe where they grown tobacco and corn.
But he also saw an opportunity: If men and women can have the same goals, and trust each other, they are likely to have fewer conflicts. He took the plunge and signed up for the training. It opened his eyes.
“I sat down with her [Kakumura] and discussed what we had learned together,” says Kausiyo. “That was the first time I understood what my wife wanted and the things she did not want. And she understood what I wanted and did not want.”
They made a plan for the year, which they drew in a notebook: They achieved their objective to acquire another cow, and a cart. The plan for 2017 is to enlarge their small home.
Kakumura says her husband has changed. Before, she says, “he kept his money in his pocket,” never trusting her with any. Now that they have shared dreams, “I am the one who does the budget and plans what the household needs,” she says. “Even when we sell our agricultural products, I am the one who goes to the market and he is the one who can stay here and take care of the family.”
Cremio Kausiyo and his wife Deliwe Kakumura carry water from the village well to their home. They both agree that rethinking gender roles in their relationship has made them happier and more financially secure. Photo: Brett Eloff/Oxfam
Can culture change?
In many households in Africa, the father is powerful. He typically makes all the decisions, and expresses little emotion. All responsibility for the welfare of the family rests with him alone. For many fathers, it’s a lonely and stressful life.
For Kausiyo and Kakumura, things are different now. On this morning, after Kausiyo has swept the yard, they both grab blue buckets and set off for the village well. Kausiyo pumps the water while Kakumura fills the buckets. Then they each hoist one on their heads and turn for home.
“It’s a rare thing in my community for a man to do these things,” says Kakumura.
Can men like Samakute and Kausiyo actually change African male culture? Kausiyo says, “About three-quarters of the men in this community have gone through GAL training,” but not all are applying it at home. “The households that are working together are progressing more than the households that are not working together. That is attracting a lot of members of the community.”
Learning that Trian Partners has taken a large stake in one’s company is not usually a happy moment for a company’s executives or directors. Trian chief Nelson Peltz does not make it a habit of investing in businesses that he thinks are well run, and he is neither shy of opinions about things nor voicing them, loudly and repeatedly, until he gets his way.
Well, the executives and directors of something called Ferguson Plc have now had that moment, following on another rather unpleasant moment for them.
Activist fund Trian Fund Management LP said it has built up a 6% stake in Ferguson Plc, disclosing the investment days after the British plumbing products company reported disappointing results and slowing growth in its biggest market….
“Trian…looks forward to working with them to explore and implement initiatives that it believes can create long-term shareholder value,” the fund’s Trian Investors 1 Ltd unit said in a statement.
Here’s the thing, though: There’s no obvious fatberg clogging up the pipes at Ferguson that can be neatly blown apart by Peltz’s usual arsenal. In fact, Ferguson’s already done most of what your average hedge fund activist might want.
Management has already gotten rid of less attractive bits of the business: Ferguson spent the last decade selling off noncore assets in countries like France where its returns and market share were low. It is growing nicely in its main U.S. market and total shareholder returns have been impressive over the last decade—Ferguson’s 20% annual average is double what the wider U.K. index manages.
This, of course, leaves only wild speculation about what “initiatives” Peltz may wish to discuss with Ferguson CEO John Martin. A bit of economic imperialism, for instance, to both bring Ferguson closer to the people it actually sells stuff to and distance itself from the future impoverished hell-state that will be the post-Brexit United Kingdom, with maybe little boost in multiples.
One theory is that the fund will push the board to move Ferguson’s listing out of London. A statement describing it as “an attractive business that trades at a discount to comparable U.S. peers” seems to point in that direction. And it does make sense given the plumbing company now makes over 90% of its revenue in the U.S. and reports in dollars…. Before today’s bounce, it changed hands for 13 times projected earnings. More residential-focused companies Lowe’s and Home Depot command 16 and 19 times respectively. Watsco, an industrial supply business, fetches 24 times. It is possible that Ferguson’s misleading association with the U.K. and its chaotic withdrawal from the European Union has given its stock an unwarranted discount that would disappear if it moved.
While the FCC has indicated it’s more than eager to approve T-Mobile’s $25 billion merger with Sprint (despite an endless list of red flags), other regulators have proven to be a harder sell. The DOJ, for example, seems a bit sheepish on signing off on a deal that will reduce already semi-tepid US wireless competition by 25%. They’re correct to worry: US telecom is awash with examples of how such consolidation tends to devastate employment, and results in significantly higher rates for consumers and businesses alike.
Granted with the DOJ now run by former Verizon attorney Bill Barr, it’s still very possible the DOJ approves the deal anyway. But even then, the deal is going to have to get past a new coalition of 10 state attorneys general, who say they’ve joined forces and will file a lawsuit to block the deal whether the DOJ approves it or not. New York Attorney General Letitia James and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra were fairly blunt in a statement announcing the move:
“When it comes to corporate power, bigger isn’t always better,” said Attorney General Letitia James. “The T-Mobile and Sprint merger would not only cause irreparable harm to mobile subscribers nationwide by cutting access to affordable, reliable wireless service for millions of Americans, but would particularly affect lower-income and minority communities here in New York and in urban areas across the country. That’s why we are going to court to stop this merger and protect our consumers, because this is exactly the sort of consumer-harming, job-killing megamerger our antitrust laws were designed to prevent.”
While everybody is certainly welcome to their own opinions when it comes to tech policy, there’s really not much of a debate when it comes to the impact mindless M&As have had on the telecom sector.
Comcast (and it’s comically terrible customer service) was born from the mindless sector obsession with growth for growth’s sake. This consolidation, especially in wired broadband, has left us with a clearly unhealthy sector with little real competition, resulting in some of the highest prices and slowest speeds in the developed world. There’s not a single telecom metric the US isn’t mediocre in, and it’s a direct reflection of two things: regulatory capture and mindless merger mania. That’s now being extended to wireless, where the reduction of overall competitors from four to three will dramatically reduce any incentive to, you know, actually try.
It’s also pretty clear that when government tries to “fix” these anti-competitive unions via condition, it rarely works out well. The conditions imposed in these deals are often flimsy and proposed by the companies themselves (usually because they know they don’t actually do much). Even then, companies are routinely free to ignore conditions without meaningful penalty, and many bipartisan incarnations of the FCC have simply refused to enforce them anyway. Pre-merger promises (and there’s plenty attached to the T-Mobile deal) aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, yet US policymakers adore pretending otherwise.
With former Verizon lawyers running both the FCC and DOJ, the chance that this administration imposes and then enforces tough deal conditions is slim to none. That leaves the more simple option: blocking the deal entirely. Some variant of this deal has been blocked twice already (AT&T’s attempted T-Mobile acquisition in 2011, and Sprint’s attempted merger in 2014), and for obvious reasons. Still, T-Mobile and Sprint executives are hoping that the Trump administration opens the door wide to approval anyway, leaving it (yet again) up to state AGs to actually protect the market and consumers in the face of federal apathy.
Janet Jackson and Justin Timberlake (Photo by KMazur/WireImage)
What Biglaw firm (successfully) represented CBS in its efforts to overturn Federal Communications Commission fines over the Janet Jackson’s 2004 Super Bowl wardrobe malfunction?
Hint: The firm was founded in 1944 and has eight offices worldwide.
Zimbabwe has an elephant population of around 84,000 which is nearly double what it can cope with, according to the officials. (AFP/MARTIN BUREAU)
HARARE: Zimbabwe has demanded the right to sell its stockpile of ivory to raise money for conservation, wildlife authorities said on Tuesday (Jun 11), joining other southern African nations in calling for the global ban on the trade in tusks to be relaxed.
Wildlife authorities in the cash-strapped nation estimate the country’s decades-old hoard of ivory is worth around US$300 million, which they say would help plug funding gaps for game reserves.
The proposal has put it on a collision course with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which prohibits the sale of ivory to curb poaching.
Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia have cited the growing number of elephants in some regions in their bid to have the restrictions relaxed.
Spokesman for Zimbabwe’s wildlife authority Tinashe Farawo told AFP that the nations had submitted a joint proposal to CITES and warned: “If we are not allowed to trade we will not take part in CITES discussions on elephants.”
“Our decision to sell ivory is not an emotional one. It is a scientific one backed by facts. At independence in 1980 we had 40,000 elephants and the number has more than doubled and yet the land is not expanding,” Farawo said.
Zimbabwe has an elephant population of around 84,000 which is nearly double what it can cope with, according to the parks and wildlife authority.
But over the past decade, the population of elephants across Africa has fallen by about 111,000 to 415,000, largely due to poaching for ivory, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
In May Zimbabwe sold 100 elephants to China and Dubai in an effort to raise cash. The deal was worth US$2.7 million over six years according to wildlife authorities.
Farawo called on critics of the ivory sale proposal to “give us money to run our operations,” instead of lambasting it.
Wildlife authorities said if approved, it would help them fund operations, buy radios and vehicles for patrols to curb poaching.
“CITES was meant to regulate trade in endangered species but if there is no trade then CITES is not serving its purpose,” Farawo said.
Last month Botswana, which has the largest elephant population in Africa, sparked controversy by lifting its five-year ban on elephant hunting citing “high levels of human-elephant conflict”.
“In the end, what matters most is that the model start her career off when she is physically and mentally best suited for success.”
Models at Saint Laurent’s Fall 2018 show. Photo: Imaxtree
In March, luxury conglomerate Kering announced that, starting with the Fall 2020 season, its brands, which include Gucci, Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, would no longer employ models under the age of 18.
“As a global luxury group, we are conscious of the influence exerted on younger generations, in particular by the images produced by our houses,” Kering’s chairman and CEO François-Henri Pinault said in a statement. “We believe that we have a responsibility to put forward the best possible practices in the luxury sector and we hope to create a movement that will encourage others to follow suit.”
The move saw Kering join Condé Nast and the CFDA, who initiated similar policies, though the latter’s was less concrete; in an August 2018 letter to designers, the organization said it was “encourag[ing]” designers “to consider only working with models aged 18 and over,” though it didn’t prohibit them. Still, the announcement, like Condé Nast’s and Kering’s, was met almost exclusively with applause — together they signified an evolving effort by the industry to protect the young women it preys upon.
But fashion has a long history of employing underage models: Kate Moss and Naomi Campbell were discovered at 14 and 15, respectively; Kendall Jenner, Gigi and Bella Hadid and Kaia Gerber all made their modeling debuts well before they were 18. Could an industry that’s spent decades capitalizing on underage models in terms of both exposure and revenue — a Grazia Australia article suggests Gerber will be more successful than mom Cindy Crawford, thanks in part to her starting her career at such a young age — be ripe for change?
As some of the world’s largest and most influential players refuse to hire models under the age of 18, top modeling agencies are being forced to reevaluate how they operate. Building a model’s brand and portfolio doesn’t just require landing major jobs — it starts with scouting and requires a customized and comprehensive development process, two practices that agencies may be forced to reconsider.
Kaia Gerber making her runway debut at 16 the Spring 2018 Calvin Klein show. Photo: Imaxtree
“When the CFDA, Kering and Condé Nast get behind an initiative, it trickles down to those who scout the models, which means the models now being offered to us are, with rare exceptions, already 18 or older,” says Kevin Fitzpatrick, executive director of Silent Models. “The mother agents — the ones who originally find models at, for instance, the local shopping mall — know to encourage the girls to stay in school longer. Conversations with parents are now more about ‘hey, let’s have your son or daughter finish up high school, get their diploma and then we can send them abroad.'”
While the traditional development process typically involves “learning how to take pictures, learning how to work with photographers and learning how to show up on time,” according to Wilhelmina‘s CEO Bill Wackermann, he notes that, now more than ever, it also includes having an open dialogue and a strong relationship with the model’s parents.
“Under the age of 18, you’re still developing as an individual and a young adult,” Waackermann tells Fashionista. “We work very closely with mother agents, but also the parents themselves. This is a business. It’s great for the Kaia Gerbers of the world who have unlimited funding for that type of lifestyle, but most models don’t. Do you want your 16-year-old living in an apartment in New York City or Paris with other young people? Those are the decisions we really have to think through with the parents, and that’s why we really advocate for staying home and coming to us when you’re 18, when you’re ready to make this a career.”
Though Wilhelmina will sign girls ages 15 or 16, Wackermann says the company sits down with parents to discuss whether the timing is really right for their child. “Modeling is a job,” he says, “and unless they are so adamant about working immediately, we tell them to stay in school, to come here in the summer and we’ll take test photos and work on development then. We’ve always believed that when someone turns 18 they are in a much better place to understand the responsibilities of the job and the level of professionalism that’s expected from them.”
While these discussions aren’t necessarily new, they have certainly become more prevalent (Wackermann says it’s because “New York has really limited the models walking to over 18”). And though most agencies admit the development process hasn’t been greatly impacted by these policies, it has, in many instances, been prolonged. (It’s not surprising, considering Chris Gay, co-CEO of Elite World, which owns Elite, The Society, Women, Supreme and Women 360, told Business of Fashion last month: “The longer we can delay [a model’s entry into the full runway circuit], we found it creates a healthier environment and long-term career.”)
Fitzpatrick says that “while the basics [of the development process] remain the same — start the model off with a few clean, simple test shoots, teach her how to walk the runway, book her an ‘exclusive’ for Fashion Week, follow that up with some cool editorials and top it off by booking her for the seasonal campaign of a major brand” — other parts are becoming more robust. It’s not just to protect the models, which is, of course, of utmost concern, but to ensure that they are mentally prepared to begin working in the first place, which is one of the primary focuses of Kering’s policy. As Marie-Claire Daveu, the company’s chief sustainability officer and head of international institutional affairs, said in a statement: “In our view, the physiological and psychological maturity of models aged over 18 seems more appropriate to the rhythm and demands that are involved in this profession.”
And Fitzpatrick agrees. “In reality, most young Americans start their first job in their late teens or early twenties, certainly after completing high school,” he says. “By that standard, models starting their careers at age 18 or soon after puts them more or less in line with their peers in other industries. We think models should, at a minimum, complete high school before starting their modeling career.”
While IMG, which represents both Hadids, still signs models under the age of 18, they have also put a heavy focus on “training and selective exposure to set the stage for a long-lasting career,” says David Cunningham, the company’s senior vice president. “Younger models are integrated into our development board, which offers training programs like IMG Model Prep [which includes education on physical and mental health, casting, photography, business, and more], as well as opportunities to gain practical experience in age-appropriate settings.” Cunningham notes that a strong development program helps “prepare talent for full-time careers in modeling” and allows them to “enter the industry with the confidence and professional know-how that ensures their long-term success.”
Elite World, too, is still working with under-18 models; Gay tells Fashionista that “historically, models have always been scouted at different ages, and both scouting and development have always been highly individualized processes. Still, he notes that “the new 18+ guidelines, which our company advocates for, have been encouraging, because it removes the pressure of models having to choose between their education and career.” He adds: “It allows them to experience this business and develop their craft, without the pressure of embarking on a full global show circuit.”
Models backstage at Givenchy’s Fall 2019 show. Photo: Imaxtree
That pressure of the global show circuit, however, still exists. While New York has the Child Model Act, which requires companies to follow specific guidelines in order to employ models under 18, in Europe, “there’s more fluidity; girls are still walking [runways] at 16,” Wackermann says. Plus, luxury conglomerate LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton, Celine and Givenchy, among others, told Fortune last month that they “firmly disagree” with Kering’s policy — a move that continues to promote a certain fantasy to young girls while ignoring the realities of both traveling and working abroad.
“For many models, having to travel to foreign countries, being away from the comforts of home and lacking the daily guidance and support of their family, can be very emotionally taxing,” says Fitzpatrick. “The temptations of city life in New York, Paris and London can overwhelm just about anyone — particularly someone under the age of 18. That’s another reason why we support these rules.”
As a result, agencies like Ford, DNA and The Society have committed to no longer submitting models under 18 to brands for runway shows. Fitzpatrick, however, says Silent is taking a stand by not signing any models underage, period.
“Our rule is to only sign models that have reached the age of 18,” he says, noting if a model is slightly younger they are “happy to meet and track her progress and work alongside her parents until they are of age.” Only then will the agency officially sign her.
“It takes real leadership for these things to take place,” he says. “In the end, what matters most is that the model start her career off when she is physically and mentally best suited for success, and we think that’s at age 18 or over.”
The two agricultural commodities, which are fetching higher export prices, are on the rebound owing to the potential they give to Zimbabwean farmers and companies to earn foreign currency in a country battling a financial squeeze.Most farmers have been taking up tobacco, but this year’s crop has been fetching lower prices. In the Eastern Highlands region near the border with Mozambique, coffee and tea growing is becoming profitable once again.
Cremio Kausiyo and his wife Deliwe Kakumura carry water from the village well to their home. They both agree that rethinking gender roles in their relationship has made them happier and more financially secure. Photo: Brett Eloff/Oxfam
