Mugabe and his cohorts do not know when it is time to stop anything.

Not that long ago there was the huge furore about Nestle buying milk in huge quantities from Gushungo Dairy - a farm that had been forcibly taken over by pro-Mugabe zealots and has ended up in the hands of Grace Mugabe, who has been coining it - big time.

When the news broke that Nestle was buying from Amazing (Dis)Grace, there immediately began a campaign to boycott Nestle’s produce to force them to stop the purchase from dubious sources.

Nestle then stopped the purchase.

Now a group led by former TV presenter Supa Mandiwanzira calling itself the Affirmative Action Group has made the threat to take over Nestle Zimbabwe and force it to recommence the delivery of milk from Gushungo Dairy.

What Mandiwanzira has forgotten is that Nestle Zimbabwe, even if it was taken over locally, will have no clout to force the international company to take milk from the Mugabe family.

Indeed, Nestle Zimbabwe may be forced to purchase the milk, but without a market to distribute the purchased milk to, it will very quickly follow so many other Zimbabwean companies into bankruptcy…

I also was quite amazed at the remark made by Mandiwanzira.

“The President and the First Family are a symbol of black empowerment and indigenisation,” said Mandiwanzira. “They have taken a battering as a result of the land reform programme.”

A symbol of taking what is not theirs perhaps - but I’d love to know more about the “battering” they have received…

Contrary to the ‘one family - one farm’ policy lauded by Mugabe himself, his family now have at least half a dozen farms. Each of these farms will be run with the same ethos as Gushungo Dairy - a sale at any cost. In commercial business, the ability to buy and sell must be voluntary, not enforced - and certainly not on a political basis alone.

The Mugabe’s make a good living out of others’ misery, thank you very much – so I am floored by the idea that they have taken a “battering”. A fortune maybe, but not a “battering”.

The suggestion that the Mugabe family is a symbol of black empowerment catches in the craw - simply because if that is the way to do business, then I’d much prefer to go without! Business deals are not something to by pushed through using threats and influence.

Who does that AAG think the Mugabe family is?

“We are not going to accept the continued embarrassment of the President and the first family.”

“We are aware that there is a bunch of right wing Rhodesians who are out to derail the inclusive government,” said Mandiwanzira. “It is that network that has forced Nestle to stop buying milk from the first family. This is unacceptable.”

Rhodesians? Rhodesia was lost to the pages of history in 1979 - or does the AAG wish to blame the concept of good business relations upon the badly though-out idea of regime change… and the Rhodesians will do as a place to lay the blame?

The milk deal involving Gushungo Dairy is intent on leaving a sour taste in the tongues of democracy.

Robb WJ Ellis
The Bearded Man