The international food company, Nestlé, has announced that it is to stop buying milk from a dairy farm owned by Zimbabwean first lady Grace Mugabe.
The decision follows threats to boycott Nestlé products, made after a British Sunday newspaper revealed the purchases, made from a farm seized from a white landowner under Zimbabwe's land reform programme.
In its initial response to the newspaper report, Nestlé defended its presence in Zimbabwe and said it was buying from Mugabe's farm, Gushungo Dairy Estate, after eight of the company’s 16 contracted suppliers went out of business.
"Nestlé prefers to work within contractual agreements to ensure a constant supply of fresh milk, but... in early 2009, [it] was forced to purchase milk on the open market from a wide variety of suppliers on a non-contractual basis. This includes milk from the Gushungo Dairy Estate."
Nestlé said Gushungo had supplied it with 10 to 15 percent of its local supply.
However, the company published a statement on its website on Friday saying it would stop taking milk from Gushungo and seven other farms on Sunday October 4.
"In light of the recent controversy surrounding our relationship with the Gushungo Dairy Estate, we believe that this announcement reflects our long-term commitment to Zimbabwe while acknowledging the specific circumstances around these events," the company added.
Nestlé said it had been buying from the eight farms "on a temporary basis" to help prevent a collapse of the dairy industry after the country's Dairy Board had been unable to pay the farms for their milk. However, the Daily Board was now able to resume buying from the farms, enabling Nestlé Zimbabwe to cancel its purchases.
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AllAfrica;
This is precisely the reason you sometime hear me advocating for the complete or total nationalization of all politically inclined foreign businesses in Zimbabwe. How long should we continue being held to ransom by imperialists who have killed us, maimed us enslaved us, oppressed us, subjugated us and dispossessed us; all for and of our resources?
How long should we allow ourselves to be tossed around like a useless coin by the same people who, yesterday, were our arch enemies and who still want to continue the enmity in the twenty first century when we thought we are now living in a globalised world where each and every one of us is free to trade with who they so wish.
Everybody knows about Tesco, and about the Germany Company that used to supplies us with material to print money and about the sanctions which some say do not exist. Stupid idiots like Awt, Zungairwa, and this blaspheming creature calling itself god and another one calling itself Satan all deny that Zimbank and Agribank are under sanctions which Tsvangirai and his cohorts called for.
Phiri's point should be taken serious. Who suffers when this imperialist company stops producing milk and milk products? Is it the Gushungo Company and/or the President and his wife? A big NO! It is the vulnerable children who need milk products for their survival.
So, ultimately who dies of the sanctions that Tsvangirai called for? It is my daughter and son who need these products; it is the poor ordinary Zimbabwean who suffers as a result of the stupidity of one person and his sellout party.
Once again I would like to call upon government to take over foreign companies that play politics in pursuance of a political end at the expense of their business interests.
The same companies and governments were doing business with Apartheid South Africa when blacks were dying in large numbers as a result of De Klerk, Botha and others' bullets. Such political companies should be taken over and given to indigenous people without delay as they are sure going to continue arm-twisting and holding us to ransom because of the monopoly they enjoy.
But who is behind all this? Many people may not be aware that these are CIA and MI6 machinations that are meant to fulfill the imperialists' illegal regime change agenda.
The spy agencies will stop at nothing and will do anything as long as it results in the death of black Zimbabweans. Notice how they grinned when we were dying of cholera which they had activated in the first place.
If they can kill people at a wedding or praying in church in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine, what stops them from killing a black child by starving them of food, milk and milk products when there is no direct link with the death of innocent children of Africa?
Takunya, just how much milk does Mugabe and his wife ever give to the poor children of Zimbabwe? By "give" I do not mean sell, I mean GIVE as in "Here children take this milk. It is free from us."
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"How long should we continue being held to ransom by imperialists who have killed us, maimed us enslaved us, oppressed us, subjugated us and dispossessed us; all for and of our resources?"
For as long as you are unable to mine, refine, or build using those resources yourself. Until then, all you can do is fight and die, until the starving survivors of your wars beg the West to make them slaves once again, just so they can be fed Western food.
If you don't want to be slaves, then stop demanding that sanctions be lifted, and develop your economy and culture without a line of credit with the World Bank, without trading with other G8 nations. Cuba has done it, why can't you?
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