HEADLINES:
R/€ 
Oil Nestlé shuts down Zim operation
December 24, 2009 Edition 2
Swiss food company Nestlé has suspended operations in Zimbabwe, complaining of harassment after it pulled out of a deal to buy milk from a farm taken over by President Robert Mugabe's family.
Nestlé said it received an unannounced visit by government officials and police on Saturday and was forced to accept a milk delivery from non-contracted suppliers.
"Two Nestlé Zimbabwe managers were questioned by the police and released without charges the same day," the company said.
"Since under such circumstances normal operations and the safety of employees are no longer guaranteed, Nestlé decided to temporarily shut down the facility."
The decision will do nothing to help the unity government formed by Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, his old rival, in efforts to persuade foreign investors it is safe to do business there.
In October, Nestlé stopped buying milk from Gushungo Dairy Estate after international criticism of the deal entered into in February. The farm had been seized under a controversial land reform programme.
A source familiar with the situation said Nestlé Zimbabwe officials, including expatriate managing director Heath Tilley, had been under pressure since the company's decision to stop buying the farm's milk.
The executives were not charged, but it had been suggested there might be problems with Tilley's work permit, the source said.
Mugabe's seizure of white-owned commercial farms to resettle landless black Zimbabweans has been blamed by his critics for ruining the country's once prosperous economy.
His opponents also said the main beneficiaries had been ruling party loyalists rather than the poor.
The veteran leader, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, has denied accusations of ruining Zimbabwe, saying the economic crisis was caused by sanctions imposed by Western countries opposed to his land reforms. - Reuters
© 1999 - 2010 Mercury & Independent Online (Pty) Ltd. All rights reserved.