‘We survive by the grace of god’

When she hears a car bumping up the dirt road to her village home, Celiwe Ncube looks out eagerly. Does it have a blue number plate ending with GP? If it does she rejoices. She knows it will carry both food and hard currency in her name, and she will live without hunger for another month.

The 'GP' means the car comes from South Africa's Gauteng Province, which covers Johannesburg and Pretoria, and where most emigre Zimbabweans congregate. And it means that Celiwe's daughters have not forgotten her.

"This is how I've been surviving," she told me. "My daughters in South Africa send me groceries and 700 rand a month. If it had not been for them I would be dead by now."

Celiwe, 47, is typical of many