Swedish company violated targeted sanctions on Mugabe

By Lance Guma
01 October 2009

A dairy equipment firm based in Sweden may have violated European Union targeted sanctions by doing business with Grace Mugabe. The South African subsidiary of the Swedish Delaval company has admitted supplying dairy equipment to Gushungo Dairy Estate, a farm Grace controversially ‘acquired’ along with 6 other farms. This week the company claimed it did not know who it was dealing with when the transaction took place.

Delaval supplied equipment to Mugabe’s wife after sourcing it from Poland, Sweden and Germany. The company now says it regrets the deal. It said it first made contact with the SA Dairy Association and then a long list of investors. ‘The Mugabe name was never mentioned. This has come as a surprise to us and we would never have done business with them,’ Passard said.

Severe penalties are in place for companies that violate the restrictions placed on doing business with members of Mugabe’s inner circle. Delaval said it was too early for them to comment on what may happen to them. Another company coming in for criticism is Swiss company Nestle. Following reports that Nestle Zimbabwe was buying over a million litres of milk a year from Grace Mugabe’s farm, a campaign for an international boycott was set up. Human rights group Afri-Forum has given Nestle to the 7th October to stop buying what it termed ‘blood milk’ or face protests and a boycott of its products worldwide.

The pressure worked with Nestle. On Thursday they issued a statement saying that they would no longer be buying milk from Gushungo Dairy Estate. The company claimed it only purchased the milk on a ‘temporary’ basis when the economic crisis reached a level where the industry was at the risk of collapse. Nestle now says it will stop receiving milk from the farms by 4th October and that the Dairy Marketing Board will be taking over this function.

Switzerland this week cleared Nestle of any wrong doing, saying the targeted sanctions applied only to firms in the country and not their subsidiaries elsewhere in the world. The story and remarks by Switzerland led to Human Rights Watch calling for a debate on ‘corporate behaviour and irresponsibility.’ Observers say multinational support of the ‘bad guys’ just ensures they can sustain their corrupt and brutal regimes.

Meanwhile the violence on white owned commercial farms across the country continues unabated. The Commercial Farmers Union said ‘the reality is that we're receiving an even bigger hiding now than before.’ A government taskforce investigating reports of fresh farm invasions was set to publish its findings on Thursday after a probe lasting 6 months. The farming groups were still to receive it at the time of broadcast.
Thursday also saw the winding up of a two day all-stakeholders conference which was looking at how to revive the shattered agriculture sector. John Worsley Worswick from Justice for Agriculture told Newsreel he raised the ongoing invasions and violence during the conference, saying it made a mockery of the objectives of the meeting. He said the meeting clearly highlighted the polarization between those in government and others in the agricultural sector, including farmers, bankers and other groups.

Worswick also spoke about the situation on Karori Farm, where army Brigadier General Mujaji is defying a High Court order allowing farmer Charles Lock to access over US$1,5 million worth of tobacco he had grown this season. He said the farm workers have since been kicked out of the farm and are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance.

Commenting on the decision by ZANU PF to pull Zimbabwe out of the SADC Tribunal which ruled in favour of the farmers, Worswick said it was important to remember that Amendment 19, which government was using to fast track its land grab, had been set aside by the Tribunal as racist. Unfortunately SADC seem reluctant to stand by their own laws and regulations and have done nothing about this.

Meanwhile the United States Agency for International Development and Standard Chartered Bank of Zimbabwe, on Wednesday signed an agreement to enable the bank to expand its lending to the agricultural sector by US$20 million over 5 years. The programme is aimed at assisting ‘farmers and enterprises that can provide inputs and technical assistance to small holder farmers with the ultimate objective of increasing productivity and production.’

Donald Petterson from the US Embassy in Harare said the assistance was part of a commitment made by President Barack Obama to Prime Minister Tsvangirai, when the latter toured the US in June this year. The World Bank also announced a US$74 million grant to help small-scale farmers to increase their harvests. Justice for Agriculture however warned that donor agencies ‘should stay off any conflict land’ as this would infringe on the rights of the farmers. The group said there are close to 4500 pending property cases, out of a total of 6800.