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Nestle's milk linked to Zimbabwe prez
Nestle Nesquik products
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Kai Ryssdal: Speaking of international news, the Swiss food giant Nestle is being accused of aiding and abetting the theft of a dairy farm in Zimbabwe. The company has admitted buying milk from a farm run by the wife of President Robert Mugabe. A farm that was taken from its white owners. From the European Desk in London, Marketplace's Stephen Beard has more.
STEPHEN BEARD: Nestle admits that it buys large quantities of milk from the Gushungo Dairy Estate in Zimbabwe. The property was once known as Foyle Farm before the white owners were forced out, and Mugabe's wife Grace took over. The company says it has not broken any law by doing business with the Mugabes. Since it is based in Switzerland it's not bound by U.S. or European sanctions. But Todd Moss of the Center for Global Development in Washington says Nestle should think again.
TODD MOSS: The spirit of the sanctions is that particular individuals and firms were actively undermining democracy and contributing toward the destruction of that country. So that's something that an internationally-minded company like Nestle would want to take into account.
Nestle says that Zimbabwe's dairy industry has collapsed. The company has been forced to buy milk where it can. It says if it had pulled out of Zimbabwe there would have been further food shortages and hundreds of job losses. But some expatriate Zimbabweans are not impressed. Wilf Mbanga edits a magazine for his fellow exiles in England.
WILF MBANGA: Is it morally right for Nestle to be buying milk and paying somebody who is not the owner of the farm. They are aiding and abetting the stealing of private property.
He says the seizure of almost all of Zimbabwe's white-owned farms ruined the economy. He is now urging his readers to boycott Nestle products to protest against the company's dealings with Grace Mugabe.
In London, this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.
Redistribution of wealth was what the Chimurenga was all about. The Marxist insurgents, were successful in their efforts to redistribute the land to pary loyalist (ZANU-PF politicos and soldiers) following the war. They also succeeded in driving out the people that brought wealth to Rhodesia. To the victors go the spoils, and the Mugabes' ZANU-PF is the ruling "tribe." They keep for themselves and their "tribe" the things that should be in the hands of rightful owners, black and white. True tribal systems employ leveling devices that ensure that everyone does not go without. It is clear that Mugabe is not intersted in the health, welfare and economic viability in Zimbabwe. He is interested in keeping for himself and the ZANU-PF, everything he desires, and when he needs money, he exports rare comodities to China. What people don't know about the history of Rhodesia, the Chimurenga, and African politics in general, is upsetting. It seems as though the United States is on the verge of going the same direction via the same pricipals. The difference is that the victors at this point are Democrats and Obama loyalists, and we have a true democracy (for the moment) whereby we can restore balance and move away from a quasi-socialist agenda. Zimbabweans do not have that luxury. I thought a representative majority was supposed to right all the wrongs. Was that not what the Chimurenga was supposed to be about? Now that the ZANU-PF has the country firmly in hand, no one else matters. The same fate has been seen virtually everywhere else where a Marxist backed insurgency has been victorious. How's that power sharing working out?
