Resettled farmers in Zimbabwe who've ventured into tobacco farming say bringing their produce to the sales floors in Harare is a nightmare. They complain farming the golden leaf has left them destitute and disheartened rather than enriching them, which they'd hoped for. Voice of America English to Africa Service reporter Safari Njema in Harare says over the past two years tobacco farmers have been working hard, hoping the crop that transformed the lives of their predecessors would turn them into wealthy citizens.
They soldier on despite unreliable rainfall and a lack of inputs… continuing to hope for a brighter future. But the grim reality of their daily plight is clearly visible for everyone to see.
As one enters Harare from Beatrice it's impossible
not to notice the sheer number of people milling around the giant Zitec auction
floors, popularly known as the Boka Tobacco Auction Floors.
This giant building with its red brick walls and
blue metal roof was conceived by the late Roger Boka, who dreamt of building
the biggest African auction floor in the world. Indigenous
farmers say it's ironic they are getting so little from a structure that
promised so much.
Two mobile toilets at the auction floor are in a
terrible state, prompting farmers to use the nearby bush, which is
enveloped in a terrible stench.
Thirty-six-year-old Joyce Wutawunashe explains she
cultivates the golden leaf with her husband at Buta farm, near Marondera. The
mother of three says she's been at the auction floors for more than a week,
waiting for her payment to be processed. Joyce says she has no more money
to spend. As the current withdrawal limit is 100 billion [Zimbabwe] dollars
daily, Joyce says she's a sitting duck:
"We left children in the rural areas who are
starving. We don't have any money. The money we are getting from the
bank is too little, it doesn't mean anything. The children we left
need our attention. They need food, they need to go to school so if
the bank could give us a little more money as a withdrawal, it would help us a
lot because we are starving here. We are staying in the cold for many
nights."
There are no showers at the facility. 49-year old Michael Mhofu from Madziwa
complains he's been here a week without taking a bath. He says he's spent
all his money and has nothing left, so he can't visit his ailing mother, "We
are being forced to go to ordinary shops to go and cash our cheques. So I
don't believe we will have enough money to buy inputs."
The farmers spend the greater part of the night
sitting around small fires. Some share the few blankets they have while
sleeping in the open. Then they wash their clothes in the nearby Mukuvisi river
and hang them on a boundary fence to dry.
The story is the same at the Tobacco Sales Floor,
situated in the Willowvale Industrial area. It's an empty space supported
by robust metal poles, covered with an iron roof. It's since been turned
into a temporary shelter for many new tobacco farmers, who spent at least a
week waiting for their payments.
