MUTARE, Zimbabwe, Oct 23 (IPS) – Shamiso Marambanyika helps a male customer choose a pair of jeans on a Saturday morning in Mutare, a town in eastern Zimbabwe.
The 38-year-old mother of three showed the customer a brand from Marks and Spencer, better known as M&S, a British retailer based in London.
“I can give you this for five dollars,” Marambanyika shouted at the customer, who later selected another pair of jeans. She is a saleswoman at a popular second-hand clothing market in Sakubva, a densely populated suburb in Mutare, near the border with Mozambique.
Some of the popular jeans brands that Marambanyika stocked are Hennes & Mauritz, known as H&M from Sweden, and Levi’s and Old from the United States. This second-hand clothing is dumped in Western countries such as Britain, shipped to Africa and smuggled into Zimbabwe via Mozambique’s gateway to the Indian Ocean, Mutare.
The clothes are so cheap that you can get three T-shirts for one dollar. This has not only affected the local textile industry, but also the environment in Africa.
Putting local clothing manufacturers and retailers out of business
Some clothing companies left behind by the British are struggling due to second-hand clothing and Zimbabwe’s ailing economy. Truworths Zimbabwe, a fashion retail chain founded in 1957, closed about 34 of the 101 stores it operated in the late 1990s. To reduce operating costs, Truworths also reduced staff levels at its manufacturing division in the capital Harare.
Bekithemba Ndebele, CEO of Truworths Zimbabwe, confirmed to IPS that the company was sold because it was struggling. After becoming insolvent, Truworths was sold for $1 and officially delisted from the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange in July 2025.
Last year, Truworths released a statement saying the company could not compete with cheap imports. Ndebele declined to provide further details. These formal clothing companies cannot compete with thousands of individuals selling smuggled second-hand clothing in markets in cities across the country, on the streets and from the trunks of cars.
Sakubva’s Marambanyika Market is home to more than 1,000 sales stalls, all vocally advertising their goods to attract potential customers. In Mutare’s city center, dozens of vendors pay $6 a day to sell second-hand clothes on weekends. Unlike these sellers who don’t pay taxes, retailers like Truworths pay taxes and are forced to use volatile local currencies.
Rashweat Mukundu, a social commentator based in Harare, says economic hardship is forcing many to resort to second-hand clothing. “This is a general economic challenge. Many people have no choice but to buy second-hand clothes because they cannot afford the new clothes sold in organized retail,” he says.
In stores, jeans cost at least $20.
Marambanyika, who hails from Buhera in Manicaland province, was pushed into the second-hand clothing business in 2023 after failing to find a job. She pays $115 to an intermediary, known as a transporter, who will buy a 45-kilogram bale in Beira, a city and one of the business ports in Mozambique. “Prices vary depending on the quality of the jeans. There are about 100 pairs of jeans in a bale. I make a profit of $55 on each bale, and it takes two weeks to sell them all,” says Marambanyika, adding that she pays $22 monthly to the local government.
Anesu Mugabe, a clothing designer and manufacturer based in Harare, says these second-hand clothes are often sold at extremely low prices, making it impossible for local manufacturers to compete.
“For example, you can find a pair of jeans for as little as $2. This is unheard of in local stores. This has led to a significant drop in sales for us, forcing us to scale back our operations or even close them altogether,” said Mugabe, who is now turning to businesses as a survival strategy.
Threat to the environment
Across Africa, from Kenya to Nigeria, cheap second-hand clothing is polluting the environment, according to a new report. Trashion: the stealth export of plastic waste clothing to Kenya, published in February 2023.
Other recycling companies claim the trade reduces waste in the South, but some environmental experts believe the trade does the opposite. Research shows that in Kenya, second-hand clothing is dumped in rivers and landfills. “What we are seeing is not recycling, but the dumping of second-hand clothes from the West,” said Nyasha Mpahlo, executive director of Green Governance. “Unfortunately, there is no mechanism to dispose of the waste of second-hand clothing. Second-hand clothing is found in landfills. The industry also produces CO2 emissions.”
Amkela Sidange, environmental education and publicity manager at the state Environmental Management Agency, says textile waste in Zimbabwe is very minimal, contributing an estimated 7% of the total waste generated on an annual basis.
“An analysis of the source of the textile waste shows that it comes from various sources, mainly from the textile industry. Nothing is known to be related to second-hand clothing,” she told the IPS, citing a 2023 solid waste study.
Attempts to ban second-hand clothing
Other countries, such as Rwanda, successfully banned second-hand clothing in 2016 to protect the local textile industry. Zimbabwe did the same in 2015, but introduced import taxes in 2017 under pressure from locals. But these measures and arrests by the police could not curb the smuggling of second-hand clothes.
Local textile industry players are calling on the government to ban the import of second-hand clothing and reduce taxes on local suppliers to protect the local textile industry. In August, Minister of Local Government Daniel Garwe instructed local authorities to enforce the ban on the sale of second-hand clothing. But traders have defied the minister’s efforts.
Marambanyika says if she is forced to pay import duties and other taxes, she will go bankrupt. “I feed my only son and two daughters and pay their school fees with the proceeds from this business. I cannot afford to pay those punitive taxes,” she says. “I’m going to close and move to the village.”
IPS UN office report
© Inter Press Service (20251023084027) — All rights reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service
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