Tobacco contractor embroiled

Atobacco company, Voedsel Tobacco International, has once again hogged the limelight for shortchanging local farmers In mid-January, The Standard, working in collaboration with Information for Development Trust, a non-governmental organisation running investigative reporting projects, exposed Voedsel for underpaying tobacco farmers contracted by it and attempting to bribe a journalist who probed the stand-off with its clients.

It has since emerged that Voedsel is still being dogged by controversy, following an alleged fraudulent deal by one of its employees.

Reliance Hamandishe, a 29year old farmer, has spoken out on how the employee, Robert Mahufe, allegedly sought to cheat him out of more than US$2 000 through fraudulent means.

The fingered employee, is brother to Innocent Mahufe, the Voedsel chairperson.

Due to poor financing, Hamandishe opted to be contracted by Voedsel to grow and sell his tobacco in the 2021-2022 farming season.

In the process of arranging the deal as a Voedsel contract farmer, Hamandishe was introduced to Robert in June 2021.

“Robert said he would help me get the inputs and asked for names, national ID number, my farm name, grower’s number and phone number, which I gladly gave to him,” Hamandishe said.

“He said he would contact me once there was progress with the inputs distribution.

“That was the last time I heard from that man, since June last year.”

Since it was taking too long for Robert to deliver on his promise, Hamandishe looked for resources elsewhere and self-financed his tobacco project, said the farmer.

However, he still opted to sell his produce through Voedsel, which was promising cut-abovethe-rest prices for the tobacco.

According to Hamandishe, a university graduate who is still struggling to land a job, Voedsel surprisingly withheld the US$2 281 that he had realised from his crop.

He was shocked when he went to enquire about his money when Voedsel insisted that he had received a loan from the company, hence its decision to withhold the money.

“They withheld all my money under the term ‘Voedsel recoveries’.

“I didn’t know what this term meant so I went to enquire from one of their offices, only to be told that I had taken a loan from them and they were recovering the money,” he said.

“I was shocked because the last time I remembered trying to take a loan from them I hit a brick wall.”

Undaunted, Hamandishe made numerous trips from Macheke to Marondera to chase up on his money since he knew that he had never taken a loan from Voedsel.

Even though senior employees promised to attend to his complaint of fraud, Hamandishe said, no action was taken against Robert, who allegedly used the details that he had obtained from the former to make a fraudulent loan claim against an account he created for the young farmer.

“I did not give up. I expected to get what I worked for and felt much drained,” he said.

“I tried very hard to fight depression, which was taking a serious toll on me.”

However, it has emerged, Hamandishe was paid after media inquiries and his own social media campaign in which he revealed details about the alleged fraud.

When contacted, Robert denied ever defrauding Hamandishe.

“Those are false statements that he is making. I can’t talk about it with you; you a journalist,” Robert said.