Once renowned as Zimbabwe’s “white gold belt,” Gokwe South has seen a drastic reduction in cotton farming, a development that has done little to strengthen the local HIV response.
Instead, the decline has triggered new drivers of infection as communities turn to alternative — and often riskier — sources of income.
For decades, cotton was not just a cash crop in Gokwe South, but also a stabilising economic force.
Families thrived on predictable harvests, and the steady income helped reduce the push factors that drove people into risky livelihoods.
However, with plummeting cotton prices and erratic rainfall patterns worsened by climate change, many households abandoned the crop.
In its place, people have turned to artisanal mining, vending and cross-border trading as well as labour migration.
While these alternatives bring income, they have also increased vulnerability to HIV.
“I left my wife in Shurugwi to come and work here in Gokwe South,” said Trynos Ndlovu, an artisanal miner in Masoro, Ward 24.
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“Yes, I got out and got services from sex workers and I don’t even know what my wife does when I am not around.”
This publication established that artisanal miners live in isolated, male-dominated camps where alcohol and transactional sex are common.
“I stay here at the compound and often visit close by makeshift beer outlets (zvindanya) where we buy beer and we are entertained by sex workers,” Ndlovu said.
“Some of these sex workers are coming from as far as Gokwe town, Kwekwe and Kadoma.”
Mary Zhou, a vegetable vendor at Gokwe town, said her husband left for South Africa two years ago following the demise of the cotton growing industry.
“He told me that he was going to look for a job in Kwekwe before he crossed the border into South Africa,” Zhou said.
“My husband is yet to return home and I am left to look after our three children, who are in secondary school.
“He always promises to return home, but I just heard that he was staying with another wife.
“This side I am forced to entertain some other men.”
Ruth Moyo*, a 36-year-old mother of three from the Chief Jiri area, echoed similar sentiments.
“When cotton was still giving us good money, families were together, and life was manageable,” Moyo said.
“Now my husband works in South Africa, I stay at home with the kids, and we only see each other once or twice a year. It is very difficult to keep trust in such a situation,”
Large numbers of Zimbabweans have migrated to South Africa over the last 20 years, with the total population of Zimbabwean migrants in South Africa estimated to be between three to five million.
Migration has been primarily driven by dire economic conditions, particularly lack of viability in farming in rural communities, which compel people to seek work and better living standards in South Africa and other countries.
