fooling doer have suffered the wallop of the COVID-19 pandemic as most farm possessor have exclude the door for non - resident doer despite them constituting the majority workers on most farms , as a direction to curb the spread of the computer virus .

The Zimbabwean governing announced a nationwide lockdown in the wake of COVID-19 of all non - essential industries reclassify all green goods markets as crucial service and organize that farmers should be allowed to deliver their vegetables to the markets .

However , the countrywide lockdown which commenced on the 30th of March purportedly run for three calendar week was broaden by a further 14 day , making it hard for the informal sphere to cope .

Spokesperson of a commercial-grade husbandry land who speak on the groundwork of namelessness allege due to the lockdown announced by government prole who commute to and from body of work every day can no longer do so as a means to palliate the bedcover of the computer virus .

“ We have put in place measures to see that all our farm are compliant with standard pose out by government to stanch the spreading of COVID-19 . These include lockdown of our farm workers in each compound . No bm is allowed in and out of the farms . ” he said .

But worker ’ matrimony see this as a double - edged sword : good in the competitiveness against COVID-19 but bad for the workers .

speak to us , sum illustration Michael Mukokeza disclosed that most farmers had put their workers on an volunteer farewell citing the effect of the coronavirus on world markets where most agrarian exports are marketed . He say layoffs were now rampant as farmers used disciplinary measures to get rid of stave .

“ As of now , most farmers do not allow access into farm so there ’s no way of monitor what ’s come about in there . Farmers are taking advantage of the lockdown to duck monitoring although the government put monitoring as a status for include agriculture among essential service which continue operate during the lockdown , ” Mukokeza said .

Austin Muswere , spokesman for the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers ’ Union of Zimbabwe ( GAPWUZ ) articulate the union had engaged the Ministry of Labor and employer ’ associations on the indigence to protect farmworkers ’ rights and stop disciplinary hearings during the lockdown , but most farm employees are perfunctory labor which makes it well-to-do to retrench .

“ The event of casualization are already being matt-up within the lying-in force . The pandemic is give it bad for casual workers who are mostly charwoman , with international need for flowers falling , it is well-situated to retrench them . This is a huge blow to farmworkers who lack a robust social protection system , which means if they lose their job , they have nothing to fall back on , ” Muswere say .

He add that some Fannie Farmer had already indicated they would stop reclamation of contracts until the situation stabilise .

A spokesman for the Commercial Farmers Union could only say operations are become on as usual on commercial-grade farms .

Farmworkers in Zimbabwe despite earning the nation precious extraneous currentness and being the sole producers of food in the country , make a Brobdingnagian demographic of Zimbabweans who are hunger stricken and can hardly afford what they produce .

Source : Women@Work Campaign