THE recent hostilities between the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (CCZ) and private firm Southern Cotton Company has taken a turn for the worst as suspected CCZ employees have started violently attacking transporters and buyers representing their rival Southern Cotton, Zim Morning Post has learnt.
This is after a footage emerged and went viral on social media of people purporting to be working for the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe violently harassing Southern Cotton staff in Chiredzi.
Allegations are that Southern Cotton is fueling side marketing by offering a sweetener by way of a more lucrative buying price, hordes of men have embarked on a campaign of destroying cotton bales bought by Southern Cotton, threatening and even assaulting Southern Cotton employees.
Some of the incidents have been caught on camera after Southern Cotton employees started fearing for their lives.
“They are coming in teams of more than 20 thugs purporting to be Cottco (sic) staff saying you did not finance in this area. This is happening though the AMA teams stationed in these areas have vetted the farmers and ascertained that they are bona fide Southern Cotton farmers,” said a spokesperson for Southern Cotton Company Mr Kudakwashe Mabonga.
“Our Area Manager has on several occasions tried to engage Cottco management but to no avail. On Monday we engaged police and met them at Chiredzi police station but they ignored Police instructions and continued with their exercise on Tuesday. This was against Police instructions. This prompted our Directors to send me to Chiredzi. As we were meeting their Business Manager Mr Chikasha and Area Manager Mr Hungwe, their thugs were busy collecting more cotton,” said Mr Mabonga.
Side marketing is when parties to a contract violate the agreement, either when a farmer chooses to sell to other merchants or when a company buys from farmers it has not contracted. Cotton Company of Zimbabwe provided inputs for some farmers last season in contracts, but buying the produce back for $1,95 per kilogram against Southern Cotton’s $2,40 has gotten them on the back foot.
Southern Cotton refutes that it is buying contracted cotton and in fact targeting out of contract growers.
The violence has escalated in the cotton wars so much so that many transporters have fled the violence and decided against putting their life in harm’s way at the hands of the purported Cotton Company of Zimbabwe hired thugs.
“I was brutally attacked and cannot continue in such an environment until order is restored. We love our jobs and are not doing anything illegal but as you can see from the footage on the circulating videos this is not child’s play. These thugs mean business and they are dangerous,” said transporter Pardon Ruregerero.
Mabonga fears these wars could trigger uncertainty and derail efforts to rebuild the cotton industry which was increasingly plagued by farmer flight as the so called ‘white gold’ had ceased to be a lucrative farming option.
“These activities are pulling down national development as our efforts of complementing Government programmes of empowering farmers are being frustrated,” he said.
Efforts to obtain comment from CCZ management hit a snag at the time of writing.
NB: You can watch the video on our You Tube Channel @ Zimmorningpost