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 What she got was a death threat.
Priscah Godzamutsipa sits next to a few sacks of nuts she it trying to sell at this busy border post linking South Africa to its troubled neighbor. She says she worries about going home, where militants loyal to President Robert Mugabe are intimidating villagers who voted against the longtime leader.
"They say: 'We are going to kill you,'" said Godzamutsipa, 55. "We are worried about them. They say:
'Why did you vote for Tsvangirai?'"
Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, says he won Zimbabwe's March 29 presidential elections; no official results have been released. His party has accused Mugabe of unleashing a campaign of violence against opposition supporters, especially in former rural strongholds of the ruling ZANU-PF party.
Zimbabwean Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu called the claims lies, saying the country is peaceful, with "no violence whatsoever."
Godzamutsipa lives in Masvingo, a cattle-ranching area where ruling party militants began invading white-owned farms last weekend. By Wednesday, dozens of white farmers had been driven off their land.
Across Zimbabwe, only a few hundred remain of the 4,500 white farmers who once grew enough food to feed the nation and export to neighbors.
Godzamutsipa farms 10 acres of family land with her husband and was once a staunch supporter of Mugabe, who led a seven-year bush war that helped end white rule and bring independence to Zimbabwe.
But now she "wants change," the refrain of many Zimbabweans.
"Before Mugabe was very good. I could pay school fees. There was food in the supermarkets," she said. "Now the shops are empty. You can have a billion dollars, but you can't buy anything."
A lack of rain and fertilizer and only two oxen for tilling mean Godzamutsipa can barely produce enough food for her six children as well as the six nieces and nephews she looks after.
So, every month she makes the two-day bus journey to South Africa, hoping to sell enough nuts to pay school fees and buy essentials such as cooking oil and soap.
The Beitbridge border post, set in a dusty, scrubby landscape marked by giant Baobab trees, has become a hive of trade and activity.
A stream of cars and small trucks laden with goods head north from South Africa, destined for Zimbabwe's black market. At the gas station, a mass of plastic drums lie waiting to be filled with fuel
-- a scarce commodity across the border.
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 In the market, women sell tomatoes and sodas in the hot sun, while men with minibuses do a roaring business ferrying day-trippers and shoppers. In a darkened hut, a money changer counts out wads of U.S. dollars and South African rands.
As Zimbabwe's economic and political woes have intensified, an increasing number of Zimbabweans are fleeing to South Africa and other neighboring countries.
There are few reliable figures, but estimates consistently put the number of Zimbabweans in South Africa at 3 million
-- nearly a quarter of Zimbabwe's total population.
The International Organization for Migration office in Zimbabwe says people are crossing into South Africa at a rate of more than 1,000 a day.
Some cross legally but then let their visas expire; others get truck drivers to smuggle them in.
"Most of the truck drivers do it now," said Tom Karonga, 34, who has been waiting on the Zimbabwean side of the border for a week while his cargo of luxury cars is being cleared, crossing daily into South Africa on foot for supplies.
"We know they are doing it for the better of their families or themselves," he said, adding that he had been approached by Zimbabweans on both sides of the border desperate for a lift to "anywhere."
Some Zimbabweans choose to brave the crocodiles of the Limpopo River, often paying exorbitant fees to guides.
The poorly patrolled border stretches for miles, with barbed wire marking out a rocky patch of no man's land a few feet wide. Holes cut into the bottom of the fence are large enough for adults to crawl through. In some areas, there is no fence at all.
Once through, "border jumpers" make a dash across a narrow strip of tarmac, duck through some more ripped fencing and disappear into the bush, leaving behind an odd shoe or cap.
In the warm glow of the late afternoon sun, a man in a khaki shirt rushed from the fence back into shadow on the Zimbabwean side. Disturbed by the cars on the South African side, he made one more attempt to reach the fence before retreating to wait for another, safer time to cross.
[Associated
Press; By CELEAN JACOBSON]
Copyright 2008 The Associated
Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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