At Boka, police had to be called in as farmers turned violent in protest against exploitative auction offers. Those selling their produce at Millennium held officials hostage demanding payment for the days sales before close of business.
Last week, The Zimbabwean spent two nights with struggling farmers at the recently opened Millennium Tobacco Floors in Msasa, to experience first-hand the hardships and abuses they face.
Receiving the tobacco bales is a 24-hour exercise, while sales start 7.30 am and end around 1 pm or late in the afternoon, depending on various circumstances. Last Tuesday, sales started as programmed but ended 12.45 pm after only two selling sessions.
Farmers who bribe personnel at the receiving floor and supervisors who determine which bales are due for auction, get their produce auctioned ahead of those without connections. In one working shift, the main influential supervisors shunting bales onto the floors were identified as Spoon, Mbizo, Dhani and Zhou.
If a farmer fails to behave himself as expected by the supervisors, his produce has problems getting onto the floor for sale. For example, it is common that bales are misplaced – only to be found weeks later. The poor farmer is thus forced to make new bookings for his tobacco to be auctioned.
Well-connected farmers and those who pay bribes have their bales auctioned the moment they are received at the floors. Failure to oil the palms of influential officials results in farmers having their bales sidelined and put in unattended relay bay for days on end, said a hopeless woman farmer, Mavis Muronzi (46) from Chitate area, Mvurwi.
Many farmers mill around the floors, complaining that they have been there for the past week but their bales have not been auctioned and some of them lost. Those whose bales had been located struggled to have them listed on the sales list, as they could not raise bribe money to get things moving in the right direction.
At the end of another fruitless day, dejected and desperate farmers retire to two big tents for a chilly, sleepless night. The tents, which have no proper floors or electricity, were pitched by the Tobacco Floors to provide temporary shelter for farmers. Hundreds of farmers of both sexes cram themselves into the tents every night. Dozens of others sleep in the open while some dance to music to kill the night at a local beer hall. In the tents, drunkards and delinquent juveniles speak in obscene language in the gathering which includes children.
On Wednesday, this reporter witnessed one of the auctioneers, Jeremmi Perussih, (according to a name tag hanging around his neck) pocketing cash handed him by a youthful farmer (Growers number V128026). Perussih went on to shuffle tobacco in the farmers bales, displaying a few good leaves as samples for buyers while hiding bad ones underneath the bale. He even pulled out and threw away the worst grade leaves in full view of other farmers.
He later auctioned the bales at a higher offer price of $4 and $3.95 each. Bales from other farmers classified in the same category of X2L, were sold at an average $1.40. A price valuator queried the high price offered for the poor quality mixed bale and was about to blow the whistle when the farmer again bribed him with an offer of a cell phone. The valuator, who could not be identified as his name tag was hidden in his shirt pocket, took the bait and swept the bribe under the carpet.
Efforts by The Zimbabwean to seek comment from the floors manager, only identified as Mhepo, or the Chief Executive Officer, were frustrated by company officials who said they could not be reached as they were out on business.
Corruption at the floors has enslaved tobacco farmers to buyers. Imagine a kg of quality grade tobacco being auctioned at $1.10 or as little as $0.60, just because the farmer failed to bribe an auctioneer. Government should deploy monitors at the floors if new farmers are to continue to produce the golden leaf. Some of us received little as $45 per year out of so much toil, said a Bindura farmer, Never Muchemwa.
The problem is compounded by delays in accessing payments as it takes two days for a farmer to receive the cheque and get it converted into cash by banks operating at the floors. The little earned by the farmer is further subjected to undisclosed percentages of deductions for bank charges, weighing and auction commission.
Post published in: News