From: barnhart@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: IPS:ZIMBABWE: COFFIN-MAKERS SMILING ON THE WAY TO THE BANK
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1993 13:59:05 GMT
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.

Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

Reference: Africa, southern; Third World Dvpmnt
Title: ZIMBABWE: COFFIN-MAKERS SMILING ON THE WAY TO THE BANK


an inter press service feature

by lewis machipisa

harare, dec 26 (ips) -- at a time when most of zimbabwe's
businesses are reeling under a severe drought and  belt-
tightening economic reforms, the coffin making business is
provin to be a waterhole in a desert

the international monetary fund and world bank-induced
economic structural adjustment programme (esap), now in its
second year, has scaled down demand across most of the
productive sectors resulting in massive retrenchments and some
shutdowns.

but coffin makers report an unprecedented turnover.

''with aids (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) around,
it's big business these days'', says lovette  chiwarawara, a
local coffin maker, as he makes another sale, the fifth on this
particular day.

chiwarawara, a self-taught carpenter, works for dumisani
funeral furnishers, a backyard outfit opened a few years ago
making tables and chairs for the lowly-paid in harare's oldest
mbare suburb.

today the company only makes tables and chairs on order
devoting much time to coffin manufacturing.

chiwarawara said an increasing number of people were now
turning to the once shunned backyard businesses because of the
prevailing economic hardships.

at leading funeral parlours, coffins cost between 100 u.s.
and 1,600 u.s. dollars. this has led many zimbabwean workers
earning an average 60 u.s. dollars a month, to switch-over to
the smaller and cheaper enterprises.

harare's two leading funeral parlours also attribute the boom
in business to the aids epidemic.

japhet masimba of doves morgans funeral services told ips that
on average they assisted about 20 funerals a week, 10 more than
at about the same time, five years ago.

''i hate death like eveybody else but people should
appreciate that my business flourishes when lots of people die.

''we bank not less than (8,000 u.s. dollars) a day and
sometimes up to (20,000 u.s. dollars)'', he said. (more/ips)
ret rop040


zimbabwe: coffin (2)

the recent outbreak of cholera in the eastern and southern
parts of the country and anticipated road carnage over the
festive season can only be good business news for the likes of
masimba.

the mortality rate in zimbabwe has in fact been declining
since the early 1980s. but this trend is not likely to continue.

health ministry estimates show that about 800,000 people in
this southern african nation of 10.4 million are infected with
the aids virus.

thousands have already died from the disease, 4,020 of them
children, since 1985.

cashing in, a number of artisans in harare's low income
residential areas, who used to repair household effects, have
turned themselves into coffin-makers.

charging affordable rates to their low-income clients,
funeral furnishers like dumisani can realise earnings of up to
340 u.s. dollars a day.

''we edge the big parlours by a wide margin. our coffins
cost between 60 and 110 u.s. dollars while coffins for children
range between 40 and 80 u.s. dollars each'', said chiwarawara.
(end/ips/lm/fc/oa/92)
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