Many of Zimbabwe's tobacco farmers share the same plight during the ongoing selling season of the crop, Zimbabwe's second biggest earner after gold. Meanwhile, tobacco sales have jumped 30 percent from last year, earning US$300 million so far, according to the country's Tobacco Industry Marketing Board. Many tobacco farmers were resettled on farms forcibly taken from whites, 20 years after Zimbabwe became independent from white minority rule in 1980. Mugabe's deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, said this month that tobacco sales mean "the cake is now spread to ordinary families in the countryside," but many distressed people at a tobacco sales floor wore torn clothes. On May 4, police fired tear gas to disperse tobacco farmers protesting non-payment and hazardous living conditions at auction floors.

Source: The China Post May 30, 2017 14:37 UTC