THE MULTINATIONAL food giant Nestlé has bowed to worldwide pressure to cease trading with the wife of Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabe.
Revelations that the company was buying milk from a farm owned by Grace Mugabe prompted calls for a global boycott. Protest groups were set up on Facebook, with one attracting more than 8,000 members.
The farm’s former owner, who is white, was reportedly forced to sell it after a campaign of violence. Robert Mugabe is blamed for a programme of seizures of white-owned farms that has hurt the Zimbabwean economy.
Just days after defending its position, Nestlé announced on Thursday it would stop buying milk from the Gushungo dairy estate.
Sullivan O'Carroll, chief executive of the Swiss company's South African unit, said Ms Mugabe's farm was one of eight it would stop doing business with. Mr O'Carroll, in his first day in the post, said the row had been "a wake-up call". – ( Guardianservice)