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Raymond Jaravaza, Showbiz Correspondent
KNOWN as the kingpin of the pushcart or scania business in Bulawayo, Phinias Gomba is one of the businessmen that have been hit hard by the ongoing national lockdown.

Gomba, like many businessmen, was caught off guard by the 21-day lockdown meant to curb the spread of Covid-19 pandemic and fears his business might collapse.

Staring at the many pushcarts that lie idle as a result of the lockdown, Gomba is calculating the losses each passing day.

“We have about 200 scanias which are in good condition and ready for hire but business is closed because of the lockdown.There is totally no business to talk about at the moment because no one is hiring the scanias,” said Gomba.

He says what has worsened his situation is that he cannot account for all his pushcarts especially those that had been hired for longer than a day when the lockdown came into effect.

It costs $15 to hire a pushcart for a day.

“Some of our clients hire the scanias for a week or more and as such it was difficult to withdraw all the scanias before the lockdown. Many of these scanias are probably being hired out but no revenue is coming to me,” he said.

Gomba operates from eFusini in Makokoba suburb and many of his scanias are now parked there since the start of the lockdown.

Most of Gomba’s clients are mobile vendors selling bananas, oranges, apples and vegetables on the streets of Bulawayo.

The City of Kings looks totally different without scanias on the streets and hordes of people buying either fruits or vegetables.

One of the fruit vendors, Dumisani Mlangeni from Makokoba suburb who has known no other job besides selling bananas and oranges along Sixth Avenue, says he hopes the situation will return to normal soon.

“I have no other means of making money except selling fruits, a job I have been doing for the last four years. To be honest, I have been making good money to fend for myself. This coronavirus thing (disease) will force people like myself to find other ways of making money, which will get us into trouble with the police,” he tells Saturday Leisure.

Mlangeni said the situation was becoming desperate for most vendors who have no savings to talk about and have been out of business for nearly three weeks.

“Two of my colleagues tried to beat the system by selling fruits just outside the city centre near Robert Tredgold Primary School but were arrested and charged with breaking lockdown rules and lost all their stuff in addition to paying a fine. It’s not worth the risk so I’d rather stay at home and wait until the lockdown ends,” said Mlangeni.

Breaking lockdown regulations attracts a fine of $500 or imprisonment.

It’s a risk Mlangeni is not willing to take even when faced with prospect of hunger as he has no other means of making a living. — @RaymondJaravaza