Swiss govt clears Nestle over trade with Grace Mugabe

By Violet Gonda
29 September 2009

The Swiss national food giant Nestle has been criticised heavily for buying milk from Grace Mugabe, who controversially has ‘acquired’ six farms, most of them taken from white commercial farmers. It was exposed this week that Mrs Mugabe’s Gushungo Dairy Estate (formerly known as Foyle Farm) sells up to a million litres of milk a year to Nestlé Zimbabwe. The previous owner was forced to sell his farm at just a fraction of its value, after a prolonged campaign of violence in 2003.

Human rights groups and concerned individuals have criticized the multinational company for doing business with Mrs Mugabe, a woman who is responsible for illegal takeovers of land. The UK Telegraph newspaper revealed at the weekend that Robert and Grace Mugabe own a total of 12 farms between them. South African Radio 702 on Monday said it was inundated with calls from irate listeners who were calling for a boycott of Nestle.

Although Switzerland has restrictions against members of the Mugabe regime, the Swiss government has said the regulations they have in place only apply to firms in the country and not subsidiaries elsewhere in the world. A spokesman for the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs told the UK Daily Telegraph newspaper: “Nestlé confirmed that no individuals or companies in Switzerland were in any way involved in the relevant transactions… Therefore, no further investigations are planned at the moment."

Critics say multinational support of the ‘bad guys’ just ensures that they will continue with their corrupt practices. Against the backdrop of this lack of reaction from the Swiss, Human Rights Watch is calling for a debate on "corporate behaviour and irresponsibility".

At the same time as the Swiss are clearing Nestle Zimbabwe from any wrong doing, soldiers are continuing to wreck havoc on white commercial farmers.