FARM workers in Nyanga have described black farmers as better employers than former white commercial farmers.
Workers that spoke to The Patriot revealed that black farmers were better bosses and easy to interact with especially regarding working conditions.
In a bid to discredit the successful land redistribution programme minority white farmers who lost land to the black majority claimed that activity on the once productive farms had sharply deteriorated and farm workers are bearing the effects of the change by going for months without wages.
Most farmers in Nyanga who benefited from the programme, incorporated former white farmers’ employees who were dumped and left without any form of packages.
Former employees who spoke to this paper said they had no regrets working for indigenous farmers as they respected their rights and welfare.
Moses Kudzima who worked for a white farmer for 24 years said his former employer had a natural hatred for black employees and underpaid them despite working very hard and earning the farmers huge profits.
“I worked for a white farmer for more than two decades but he never appreciated my contribution instead, he was not consistent in paying our wages,” he said.
“Our former employer was cruel to black workers, we were forced to work without protective clothes and he gave us little wages that were not sufficient to look after my family,”
“White farmers took advantage that we were desperate for employment and abused our labour rights.”
He said black workers were subjected to harsh working conditions such as exceeding normal working hours without getting paid.
“It is a lie that white farmers treated us better than black farmers, our former employer treated us like slaves.
“We were asked to work overtime without being paid and when we tried to protest we were not only threatened with expulsion but death.
“Now we have a local farmer, we are being paid for overtime and we work without any form of harassment.”
Another former employee Maria Gandira said local farmers understand their problems compared to their former employers.
“My life has changed since I started working for my new employer. With the former employer, I was getting very little money that could not allow me to upgrade my lifestyle,” she said.
“We would always query with white farmers to get our wages but now with our bosses being fellow blacks they appreciate our problems and understand where we are coming from and our aspirations.
“Whites treated us as children, we were a people that did not require much, some were so arrogant that they would tell us to go and hunt mice for food.
Gandira said with white employers, on many occasions, violated their rights and got away with it.
“White farmers were just concerned with making more profit at the expense of black workers. We did not have off days and other benefits which we are now getting from local commercial farmers,” she said.
Zimbabwe Farmers Union chairperson for Nyanga district who is also a farmer said most local farmers in the area were not greedy and were willing to share profits with their employees.
“Most local farmers have experienced the cruelty of white farmers on employees therefore, we are trying to correct the wrongs by making sure that everyone benefits equally from the empowerment programmes,” he said.
“Most farmers in the district have realised the importance of workers in boosting production by giving them favourable wages as a way of motivating them to work hard.”
Gutu said funding of agricultural projects through loans has also changed the mind-set of many farmers to run their business professionally and profitably.
“Most local farmers in Nyanga are being financed through loans, hence, they make sure that they create good relationship with their workers to ensure accountability of their money.”
“Gone are the days when workers were paid in the form of tins of beans and offals , we cannot do that to our own people,” said Gutu.