Zimbabwe’s guards have lonely posts
Many fret about mental health, but are grateful to be employed in lockdown
HARARE, ZIMBABWE—One says he constantly talks to the cash machine he guards — never mind that it can’t answer back. Another whiles away the time by staring at pictures of semi-nude women on the walls of a closed nightclub as he waits for rats and cats to come out and entertain him.
Security guards in Zimbabwe, often a derided and underpaid lot, are counting themselves as some of the few lucky ones to still hold jobs in a country where most economic activity has been stalled by a lockdown that started in March.
But many say they are now fearing for their mental stability, as the loneliness that comes with guarding empty, eerily quiet building complexes is taking its toll.
By 6 p.m., the time Patrick Runde starts his night shift, Harare is almost deserted, and for the next 12 hours, he has no one to talk to. In the past, he would count on the nightclub’s loud music and noisy patrons for company, but now, it is closed.
“The cats and rats are coming out more than before to search the empty bins for food. They have become my friends who keep me company at night,” he said.
“This is one of the loneliest jobs in the world,” said Patson Chimire, a guard at a shopping complex on the outskirts of the city. “We hardly hear any sounds of either traffic or music coming from a nightclub. I end up talking to myself, or to things such as the ATM,” he said.
Others simply doze off as soon as they take up their posts, tired from cycling up to 30 kilometres to work. “People need security and we are there to protect them and their premises. With most people away from work, our jobs have become more essential,” Chimire said.
Despite the weariness and loneliness, Chimire said he is grateful to have employment with a regular income.
Unemployment is rife in Zimbabwe, where more than 60 per cent of the country’s 14 million people work in the informal sector, selling goods on the street — trade that is banned under the lockdown regulations. “A lot of people used to laugh at our job,” he said. “Now, they wish they were like us.”