Zimbabwe’s Horticultural Promotion Council (HPC) has moved to counter confusion in the sector over a wage dispute that is still in court.

The council has written to all its members explaining that a case heard in the labour court on 22 October judges informed lawyers that there is a compelling reason to combine the horticulture industry wage dispute and the agro-industry wage dispute. The matter was postoned and solicitors acting for the HPC have said they have asked the court to deal with the matter next week.

The HPC has been concered as Zimbabwean union officials have allegedly been visiting farms and advising workers that the case has been withdrawn. “This is total misrepresentation of facts, and is not true,” a spokesman for the Horticultural Promotion Council said. “One of their top leaders in Harare has distanced himself from what the officials are doing and agreed that the case was postponed to a future date and so the matter is still in court.”