“Robert Mugabe’s wife, Grace, who has taken over at least six of Zimbabwe’s most valuable white-owned farms since 2002, sells up to a million litres of milk a year to Nestlé, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.

Mr Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe, his wife and a number of other figures linked to his administration are the subject of European Union and US sanctions as a result of their controversial 29-year rule over the once-prosperous country.

Nestlé, the multinational food company which is the biggest customer of Mrs Mugabe’s dairy farm, is not obliged to comply with those sanctions as its headquarters are in Switzerland, but the country has its own set of measures, including against Mrs Mugabe, among which it “is forbidden to make funds available to persons mentioned, or put them, directly or indirectly, at their disposition”. Nestlé denies that it has violated Swiss law.
Mr Mugabe, The Daily Telegraph disclosed, has built a secret personal farming empire comprising at least five white-owned farms from which the owners were forced out during his regime’s evictions of about 4,000 commercial farmers.”

We all know that the Mugabe’s and their staunchest loyalists are subject to travel and business sanctions – and yet Nestlé have chosen to do business with perhaps one of the most hated people in Africa…

If beggars belief – but Nestlé chose not to let small things like sanctions get in the way of making a few more dollars at the Zimbabwean people’s expense.

And perhaps more telling is the fact that Mugabe’s government had declared no interest in the land when it was purchased by the previous owner who was instrumental in turning the dairy farm into something approaching profitable.

Once the farmer had achieved making the farm something worth taking, the Mugabe family – in direct contravention of his own policy of “one family – one farm” – set about appropriating the land from the farmer.

All in the guise of the “land grab” which Mugabe says will return land to the ‘landless blacks’.

Granted, since the takeover, Grace Mugabe has spent a awful lot of money and has re-worked the dairy’s infrastructure, but if you have a bottomless pit when it comes to financing, anything is possible.

“Mrs Mugabe has built a new residence on the farm, remodelled the original farmhouse and constructed an office block, workers said.

Mrs Mugabe uses an unmarked £100,000 tanker and trailer combination dedicated for her use to deliver milk three times a week to Nestlé’s plant on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Harare, according to workers at the plant.”

The dairy workers have commented that they work for a mere pittance whilst Mugabe’s wife rakes in an absolute fortune.

Nestlé remains unrepentant.

“A spokesman at Nestlé’s global headquarters in Switzerland was unable to confirm a precise figure, but said that the estimate was “reasonable”.

“As a result, in early 2009 the company started purchasing milk on the open market from various suppliers on a strictly non-contractual basis. In certain instances the milk available in the market would be from Gushungo Dairy Estate.” Such milk would be bought on a “cash on delivery” basis, he said, adding: “Nestlé has no direct engagement whatsoever with this estate.” But when asked to clarify whether it was bought directly or through a third party, he said: “We bought Gushungo Dairy Estate’s milk through Dorkin Dairies until that firm collapsed last February, then we bought the milk directly.”

Grace Mugabe continues to milk the profits whilst dealing with an international concern that should know better.

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man