Elita Chikwati Agriculture Reporter
The fire that has destroyed tobacco worth millions of dollars at the Mashonaland Tobacco Company in Harare raged yesterday with management dismissing allegations that it had been started by sacked workers.

MTC finance director, Mr Walter Ntini yesterday confirmed that the fire was still raging but dismissed that it had been started by sacked workers.

“We have no reason to fire workers because we have seasonal workers. We had not given anyone a letter of termination of employment. As we process the crop that we would have procured, we lay off some workers and we close between October and November when we are through with the processing and packaging of tobacco.

“Last week, some workers finished their contracts and went home. This (inferno) was not related to the recent events.

“It had nothing to do with the Supreme Court ruling,” said Mr Ntini.

Some workers at MTC said they suspected the fire was an act of arson by some disgruntled workers.

Companies have been dismissing workers following a Supreme Court ruling passed last week, which indicated that firms could terminate contracts of employment upon issuing three months’ notice without offering an explanation or following the retrenchment route.

However, Mr Ntini said they had managed to control the fire from spreading to other buildings

“The fire is still on and we are happy that we have managed to contain it in the warehouse.

“The situation was worse in the early hours of yesterday.

“It is not easy to put out a tobacco fire. We are doing our best but now we are concentrating on containing it so that it does not spread to other buildings and it seems like we are winning,” he said.

The fire fighters were battling to put out the inferno at the time of going to press yesterday.

The company ensured a continuous supply of water through the use of bulk water trucks.

The fire started smouldering around 10am on Thursday and later burst into flames around 4pm, the roof of the building collapsed.

Insiders said a similar fire broke out at the plant more than 10 years ago and it took four days to put it off.

Harare City Council, principal public relations officer, Mr Michael Chideme said the council was experiencing challenges in fighting the fire.

“We are facing some challenges in putting off the fire. This is a big fire and tobacco is too flammable.

“The tobacco was stuck up to the ceiling and it was difficult to break from the roof. We hope we will be able to put it off so it does not spread to other buildings,” he said.

MTC is in the business of processing and packaging tobacco for sale to cigarette manufactures.

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