Tongaat Hulett Zimbabwe To Fire 1 000 Workers Amid Currency Crisis

• News24 Business front page .

Sugar producer Tongaat Hulett Zimbabwe plans to lay off 1 000 employees by August this year, a company official said, as it seeks to cut costs and survive the countrys currency turmoil and inflationary pressures.

The company, one of Zimbabwes biggest employers with a workforce of 16,000, has complained of soaring labour and fertilizer costs and currency losses due to the countrys unstable currency.

Tongaat Hulett operates Zimbabwes two sugar mills with a combined capacity to crush 3.5 million tons of sugar cane annually.

Businesses in the southern African country have endured an extended crisis which has decimated its currency and fuelled episodes of hyperinflation since the turn of the century.

Tongaat Hulett Zimbabwe spokesperson Dahlia Garwe told Reuters that 500 employees from each of the companys mills in Hippo Valley and Triangle will be laid off in three phases between February and August.