SW Radio Africa (London)
Lance Guma
25 August 2008
The world's second largest advertising agency secretly sold its 25 percent stake in Zimbabwe's Imago Young & Rubicam, to majority shareholder Sharon Mugabe for $1. WPP decided to offload its shares in the company following accusations Imago helped Mugabe with his re-election campaign.
According to the UK Telegraph newspaper, under the deal the agency will change its name 'to remove all references to Young & Rubicam and associated brands.'
In June this year Bernard Barnett, a corporate Vice President at Y&R, told the UK Sunday Times in an interview, 'we're just anxious to end any possible connection between ourselves and that disgraceful regime.' WPP were keen to stress at the time that such work could not have taken place with their knowledge.
Chief executive Sharon Mugabe has denied she is related to Robert Mugabe but some press reports suggest she deliberately promoted that perception herself. Other reports suggested a romantic link to Deputy Information Minister Bright Matonga. It is Imago's work for the regime however that has continued to fuel speculation that some other link exists. They ran advertising campaigns for Mugabe's violent and discredited re-election campaign.
Sharon Mugabe bought majority shares in Imago Young & Rubicam, formerly Michel Hogg Young & Rubicam, in 2005. The latest development has seen her take full control of the company and this follows a trend where politically connected individuals buy companies for a song while benefiting from hostile political environments.
Meanwhile the UK government has been making attempts to persuade British companies operating in Zimbabwe to sign up to a seven-point voluntary code which, among other things, will require them to uphold human rights in their conduct. The move follows concern that most of them are 'silently complicit' in sustaining Mugabe's brutal regime. A total of 16 companies are said to be operating in the country, but most seem reluctant to sign up, arguing that only states and not companies are bound by international human rights legislation.
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