Phil Jambaya
On busy streets of Epworth, 58-year-old Erizah (not her real name) fits in with the other women whose lives are a constant hustle for survival and a bustle to stay abreast of the latest gossip.
But unlike her peers who survive on vending, casual domestic work in the suburbs of Harare, and formal employment as menial workers and security guards, Erizah is a special consultant.
The shack Erizah calls home, which is also her workroom, is a ramshackle a combination of plastics, rusty iron sheets and boxes upon layers of boxes on which we sat as she told the Zim Now team about her ordeals in the trade she says she joined in her teens.
In her wardrobe is a large stash of knitting hooks and needles. But she is no knitting mistress. Neither is she a crocheting expert.
“My late grandmother taught me how to do this at the age of 16, I have helped many women including those of the cloth. My job exposes me to different women from different backgrounds with different stories on why they need to do this,” said Eriza
The mother of two offers a solution for women faced with the old age problem of unwanted pregnancy. Hers is the centuries-old business of abortions.
“These needles are my tools, without them I can tell you that many lives would have been destroyed and many marriages would have been broken,” she says, waving her hands towards the instruments.
Though the Termination of Pregnancy Act (TOP) criminalises abortion statistics reveal 70, 000 illegal abortions are carried out each year in Zimbabwe.
It’s an open secret that a woman with the means can talk to medical professionals and have her little problem erased with minimal risk.
It is the economically marginalized women who resort to the services of Erizah and others of her ilk.
Health experts have argued that the lack of documentation in these backyard abortion theatres means that this can only be a speculative number of deaths recorded.
In every high density suburb, there are women, usually of an older age, giving the abortion option.
These ‘doctors’ who are referred as ‘MaMbuya’ because of their advanced age.
“Tendi” a mambuya from Hopely took Zim Now through the process.
“Mudzimai wacho anorara pasi apa, mabvi mudenga, akavhura makumbo. Ndomuudza kuti asavhunduke kana kuomesa nyama nekuti anokuvara. Ndobaya kubvisa chepamuromo wechibereko, chobuda neturopa. Ndoona kuti shupa iri papi. Kana iri padhuze inohakwa nekiroshi. Kana iri kure inoda niti. Kana mvura yangobuda, zvatopera. Anogona hake kuzoita kanguva asi mhuru inongozobuda hayo kana mvura yangobuda.”
Translation:
“The woman lies on the floor, facing up, her legs bent at the knees. I explain to her what I will do. She must be completely relaxed. If she tenses or moves suddenly, she can get hurt. First, I remove the plug at the mouth of the cervix by gently probing. It comes out as bloody discharge. Then I go inside. If the amniotic sac is close, I use a crocheting hook to pop it. If it is further in, I use a knitting needle. Once the sac pops and the fluid drains out, that’s it. It might take a bit more time for the woman to expel the fetus, but the abortion is done.”
Neither Erizah nor Tendi makes an apology for earning money by offering abortion services.
“This is how I survive through these hard times and at the same time I know that I am helping a young girl whose life might be destroyed by a pregnancy she was not looking forward to,” says Erizah.
Erizah claims that none of her clients has had any complications as competition in her field has forced her and others in the same trade to perfect their art and reduce any chances of such incidences.
There are no complete statistics on abortions and deaths arising from attempts as a number of the cases go unreported and unrecorded.
Tendi, who is a mother of five, says some of her clients are married women caught out after indulging in extra-marital affairs. Others are married women or in steady relationships who abort after joint decisions with their partners for economic reasons or other considerations.
But the majority are younger, confused women, some of the in their mid-teens.
They discover after they are pregnant that all talk of love and forever were just sweet nothings from men who only wanted unprotected sex.
Some of the baby daddies are married men who would rather pay for an abortion while others are single men who don’t want the lifetime bother of co-parenting with a woman they have no intention of ever marrying.
When Zim Now visited Erizah had a potential client. The 21-year-old asked not be identified but did not hide her desperation to ‘get this thing out of me’ as she put it.
She is struggling $50 demanded by Mambuya.
“I have managed to raise $25 and am hoping she can do the procedure and then I will pay her the balance later.
“The man who impregnate is my married neighbor who has openly told me that he will not take any responsibility.
“I am an orphan and struggling to feed myself as it is, so how will I be able to take care of a baby?” she says, visibly close to breaking down.
For US$50, Erizah and other Mambuya do more than just physically force out an embryo whose fate is never to enter this world as a bundle of joy igniting a chain of congratulatory messages, heaps of presents and the unquestionable devotion of its parents.
Mambuya also offer give disposal service and offer counseling as part of the service.
The first is for self-preservation: “It is necessary to ensure that the body of the foetus is either burnt or dumped in a deep-water source. Leaving that responsibility to the client is dangerous. Because they can dump it anywhere where it will be discovered leading to the arrest of the client who will lead the police back to you,” Eliza explains.
National police Spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said that since January 2022 up to date they have only handled at least five cases of illegal termination of pregnancy.
The counselling is to help the women understand the potential psychological effect of their decisions, help them accept the situation and live with it.
“It is very important to understand whatever one will be getting into when they come here as some people fail to live with it hence we do give a certain level of counselling especially to our younger clients,” she says.
Being a country where the majority claim Christian beliefs, Zimbabweans frown on abortion in public. In legalisation debates, morality champions drown out voices pointing out practicalities of the existence of the practice and the need to make it accessible and safe for every woman in need.
Katswe Sistahood Legal officer Debra Mwase called for a re-look into the legislation of Termination of pregnancy
"We would like to see the grounds for termination being expanded and procedural and administrative barriers being removed to ensure that women have access to safe abortion,” she said.
Dr Malvern Mahachi, who runs a private clinic in Chitungwiza said that the effects of abortions were usually long-term.
“Contraceptives are the greatest defence compared to circumstances when one has to visit these backyard abortion facilities,” he said.
Contraceptives are very accessible in Zimbabwe with oral contraceptive tablets adequate for two months’ supply retailing for just on US dollar and available in all areas from pharmacies and roadside vendors. In rural areas community based distributors from the Zimbabwe National Family Planning Council avail the tablets at half that price.
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