Retired Zimbabwean policeman from Bulawayo, whose proudest achievement is sending all six children through university. I recently retired from the force after a serious health condition. Diabetes brought my 36 years of service to the government to an end. I joined the police in 1989, and my last posting was at Plumtree Border Post, where I spent the greater part of my working life.
Looking back on my career, I'd say the first decade was relatively manageable, with only a few hurdles here and there. But the years that followed brought considerable hardship, the kind faced by most civil servants during that time. In the 1990s, despite the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme, ESAP, it was still possible to save something from my salary.
The second decade, though, was a completely different story. Saving became difficult, if not impossible, with civil unrest and hyperinflation gripping the country.
I remember during that period, people would go to the banks with wheelbarrows full of cash, only to be able to buy a single loaf of bread with it. All our savings dried up. It was the most difficult period of my working life. A salary alone simply wasn't enough to survive. To make ends meet, some of us would cross the border into Botswana to buy goods to resell back home.
The third decade of my employment brought a bit more stability, as the economy steadied and the civil service was better funded to support us. Even so, despite all my years of service and contribution, I was never able to make any lasting investment. I built no house, started no projects, acquired no property. My one real achievement, and the one I'm most proud of, was managing to send all six of my children to school, right through to university.
Before I retired, my monthly salary stood at USD $450, and NSSA took its share out of that too. Now that I'm retired, I can tell you the retirement package I received was very small, and the pension I get now is just as modest. I won't tell you the exact figure, but let's just say, sarcastically, that I get around $20 along with a bit of local currency altogether, barely amounting to a few dollars a month. It's never enough. Just enough to get myself into town and to buy my medicine.