Gudu had been suspended in 2022 before he was fired the next year over US$2 million fraud allegations. Emmanuel Matsvaire, the then head of business development, has been the acting TIMB CEO since 2022.
Market watchers and tobacco players interviewed since the post was advertised last week said for progress, stability and growth they would be grateful if the current momentum led by Matsvaire in a sector that has been a major foreign currency earner in the country since independence.
The TIMB is a regulatory and advisory statutory board whose functions include controlling and regulating the growing, marketing and exporting of tobacco in the country.
“Matsvaire has proved that he has what it takes to lead TIMB and to take it to the next level. He has proved to be a visionary leader with a passion for driving growth and shaping the tobacco industry’s future. Once appointed substantive CEO he has what it takes to transform the tobacco industry for economic prosperity in Zimbabwe,” said an official from the ministry of Agriculture yesterday.
Zimbabwe’s 2025 tobacco selling season is set to begin on March 5 with industry players projecting a harvest of between 280 and 300 million kilogrammes. Some analysts said the figure could be surpassed following the favourable rainfall received across the country this year.
“For someone who has been in an acting capacity for over two year and managed to maintain stability in a sector such as tobacco speaks volumes about him (Matsvaire) If he was incompetent they would be reassigned him somewhere,” said a tobacco farmer who has been in the industry for 29 years.
In 2023, Zimbabwe achieved a record 297 million kg. With over 150 000 small-scale farmers now participating in growing the crop, the sector has undergone a dramatic transformation from its previous state of domination by a few white farmers, marking a significant turn in the redistribution of wealth.
Most farmers interviewed said under Matsvaire, TIMB has been cracking down on side marketing with positive results. Side marketing is a form of contract breach in which contracted tobacco growers sell their produce to third parties in violation of an agreement to sell all their leaf to the party who provided the agricultural inputs.
He accelerated the drive to end tobacco side-marketing. This criminal practice is responsible for the loss of millions of dollars annually and has the potential to kill the tobacco industry. It then is no surprise that tobacco players are supporting him for propping up the indigenous farmers that pushed for an increased production. TIMB cannot accurately ascertain how much is lost annually since side-marketing is an illegal activity whose statistics cannot be accurately ascertained.
Prior to Zimbabwe’s land reform program in the early 2000s, most of the country’s tobacco was produced by commercial farmers who funded their own operations and sold their leaf at auction. Today’s Zimbabwean tobacco production is dominated by smallholder production and contract buying, as most of the new farmers are unable to pre-finance their crops.
Zimbabwe Tobacco Growers Association president George Seremwe said the appointment is more of a technical issue, with the government and other stakeholders giving support whenever possible.
“We urge the government to take into consideration how the current leadership at TIMB has helped in the improvement and stability in the sector,” he said.
“The government must be hailed for a better tobacco sector that we cherish. It is good that some farmers have improved their livelihoods.”
Zimbabwe Progressive Tobacco Farmers Association president Mtandwa Mutasa differed, saying small-scale farmers were still yet to benefit from the so-called improvement of the tobacco industry due to value-addition chain limitations.
“Yes, it is true that tobacco output is growing, but what it is that small-scale farmers can smile about remains a challenge,” he said.
“We are celebrating milestone achievements, but tobacco growers are being treated as mere tobacco producers, not as game changers of the whole industry.
“We are calling for the government to include tobacco as part of the value-addition chain, including the grower who is the backbone of the whole process. Growers have been taken for granted for too long and we hope it will be rectified soon,” he said.
