Zimbabwe: Tobacco union calls for delay to trading

Zimbabwe’s National Union for Tobacco Industry and Allied Trades (NUTIAT) has called for the opening of this year’s tobacco marketing season to be postponed until the country’s coronavirus lockdown measures come to an end. 

The union has argued this will give auction floors time to put adequate safety measures in place and to protect their employees from catching the virus.

Last week, the Tobacco Industry and Marketing Board (TIMB) announced that the marketing season for tobacco would start this Wednesday.

But NUTIAT, which represents over 2,000 workers in the tobacco industry, says sufficient measures have not yet been put in place to protect employees from the coronavirus.

“As tobacco employees we are concerned about out safety if auction floors are allowed to open when the country is still under lockdown”, said the union’s secretary-general Tabuda Moyo. 

Zimbabwe’s five-week lockdown is expected to end on Sunday. 

The government has advised the TIMB to encourage all stakeholders to follow guidelines on health and hygiene. 

Information Minister Monic Mutsvangwa said in a statement: “let us do all we can to tighten our protective and preventative measures so that we curb the unnecessary loss of lives”.