Small-Scale Fishers in the Time of COVID-19: Reinforcing the Inequalities in the Food, Economic, and Governance Systems in South Africa and Zimbabwe

Abstract

AbstractIn March 2020, South Africa and Zimbabwe declared a national state of disaster in response to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. The pandemic response resulted in the confinement of millions of poor people to their homes, particularly those who depend on informal economic activities to survive. The implemented lockdown models were adopted from the developed world, where formal food systems and social stimulus programs cannot be duplicated in developing countries like South Africa and Zimbabwe, and were bound to be problematic. Millions of the poor in these countries were food insecure before COVID-19 restrictions and had to make serious life choices on risking infection for food during the pandemic. The movement restrictions and lack of meaningful social assistance impacted access to small-scale fishers’ livelihoods and food security. This chapter unpacks the inequalities in the food, economic, and governance systems before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We show the impacts on the marginalized and disadvantaged small-scale fishers in South Africa and Zimbabwe. We highlight the ripple effects of COVID-19 throughout the whole fisheries chain, from fishers, vendors, to markets. We discuss how systemic and institutional factors constrain small-scale fishers from accessing food and practicing livelihood. We situate the way COVID-19 regulations discriminate, overlook, and reinforce existing power relations between small-scale fishers and established fishing companies in the three orders of injustices. We discuss the extent of the impact of trade bans locally and internationally on small-scale fishers’ livelihoods and food supply, as well as the gendered implications of the pandemic.KeywordsCOVID-19ZimbabweSouth AfricaSmall-scale fishersLivelihoodsFood security