Maria “Avo Maria” Mandlate sits by a roadside vegetable and fresh fruit market in Macia district, Gaza province, hoping that a passing vehicle will stop and buy her sweet potatoes that will earn her as little as MZN100 ($1.58). She’ll use the money to buy a kilo of maize meal to prepare for dinner.
The agricultural and touristic town located 150 kilometres north of the Mozambican Capital, Maputo, is well-linked with the N1 highway connecting the southern and northern regions of the country.
“Sometimes I sit here for up to a week and no vehicle stops to buy just one plate of sweet potatoes, it then gets rotten and I throw it away which means I run into a loss,” Avo Maria tells The Africa Report while sitting under a tree watching for an approaching vehicle passing the N1.
For Avo Maria, who cannot remember when she was born, but seems to be in her early 70s, selling along the highway is her only way to fight poverty and earn a living.
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