Old Mutual says its investments are dictated by profit and not political considerations.
The insurance giant was reacting to a call to shed its investment in the Zimbabwean company that prints the Mugabe government’s propaganda mouthpiece, The Herald newspaper.
“Our investments are made for the benefit of our policyholders, meant to meet needs and expectations in terms of return and not contingent upon political consideration,” OM Zimbabwe group chief executive Luke Ngwerume said in a statement on Wednesday.” (Sapa)
Anyone who has been living in Southern Africa for more than an hour would be aware of the atrocities that have been committed by the Zanu-PF and President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe in order to cling to power.
One of the most important cogs in the machinery that they employ in order to achieve this is the Mugabe mouthpiece The Herald.
It ensures that only the information and disinformation he wants circulated goes out to the people through the major newspaper of that country.
Moreover the government censor, to a large degree, anyone who dares to take up an anti-government position.
This is not rocket science and everyone knows it.
Accordingly Old Mutual is acutely aware that this particular investment of theirs is occasioning untold hardship on the people of that country.
Personally I was shocked to hear that one of our major corporates was involved with a Mugabe propaganda machine.
It is totally unacceptable.
What is worse is that they try to justify the indefensible by saying that they have a duty to their shareholders to ensure that they retain profitable assets and anyway it’s an investment dictated by money not politics.
What a load of crap.
There are many corporate monsters that have tried singing the exact same song before and their conduct was equally disgusting. Let’s look at one example.
Zyklon-B was a commercial rodenticide and pesticide in common use before World War II. The active lethal ingredient in the product is hydrogen cyanide, which is deadly to warm-blooded animals in very low concentrations, and to insects in considerably higher concentrations.
DEGESCH (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Schädlingsbekämpfung mbH / German Vermin Controlling Company), a subsidiary of IG Farben 4, licensed two German companies for the manufacture and distribution of Zyklon-B: Tesch und Stabenow (Testa) and Heerdt-Lingler (Heli).
Zyklon-B was also manufactured in one of its forms in the United States by the American Cyanamid Company 5 under licence from the patent holders, I.G. Farben.
Hydrogen cyanide has historically been employed for the destruction of rodents and insect pests.
When, however, the Nazis were looking for an effective method of gassing the Jews and other undesirables in their concentration camps they chose Zyklon-B as the most suitable for that purpose.
As a result huge orders went out to the suppliers who naturally also considered themselves indebted to their shareholders and only interested in profits and not politics.
Or that’s their version and they’re sticking to it.
If the comparison makes anyone uncomfortable it’s meant to.
In Zimbabwe we have 5 million people on the brink of starvation, political murder, millions in exiles and on and on.
The part that The Herald has played in promoting Mugabe and the Zanu-PF can never be underestimated. Despite millions starving, other millions leaving the country and their countrymen’s terrible suffering they simply keep pumping out the “good word”.
Old Mutual is an insurance company which weighs up risk very carefully before spending their money. In order to do this they need information in depth.
Accordingly if they invested heavily in The Herald they know far more about the horrendous goings on in Zimbabwe than almost anyone else.
Yet they say they are not concerned about politics merely profits.
I hope they’ve heard of Dormicum or falling asleep every night must be a bitch.
@Jeff
Any black Zimbabwean who lets Tsvangison and his cronies get away with inviting calamity on their country to protect 4,000 white farmers against 13 million black Zimbabweans is an idiot. The only reason why the white world supports Tsvangison is because he promises to restitute to the dispossessed white farmers their land when/if MDC-T comes to power. On the other hand, the only reason why blacks support the MDC-T is simply because they believe, quite correctly unfortunately, that having the MDC-T in power is the only way the white world will let go their strangulation of the Zimbabwean economy.
Mr Mudiwa, do you hate your black skin so much as to think that “4000 white farmers” are so powerful as to pose a threat to “13 million black Zimbabweans”?
p.s. I believe that the Zimbabwean population is estimated to be around 5 million at present and personally I appreciate the artisan skills many of them bring to SA.
D Mudiwa – there are only around 100 white farmers operating in Zim – land grabs have seen the demise of food security and resultant starvation not because blacks have taken over but because inexperienced, unskilled people have – and not often people who are motivated to feed the nation -too often land is given to politicians who are benefitting from Mugabe’s reward system. From the bottom of my heart I believe in land restitution and a just and equitable distribution of wealth. Redistribution of land is not an issue – to whom it is distributed and what they do with it, that is what is important. Motivations are too often driven by selfish, greedy ambitions but it is naive and dangerous to insist that every person rooting for a change of leadership in Zim is driven by negative sentiments or is racist or even that they would want the MDC to govern in place of ZANU PF. That is just silly and misguided really. At this time the MDC is the only alternative but who knows what the future will bring.
@D Mudiwa,
Calamity has already struck the country. It happened the day Mad Bob started to drive the white farmers from the land so he could give it to his cronies, who wouldn’t know a tractor from Formula One race car.
If the “White Imperialists” wanted to take Zimbabwe, they would have done it a long time ago.
Let’s face it all Zimbabweans are idiots. If you support Mugabe and the ruination of the country, you are an idiot. If you don’t stand up against him and overthrow him for ruining the country and killing his opponents, you are an idiot.
You are obviously an idiot of the first kind.
Zim is kept afloat by the Chinese and blood money from the Congo. Best of luck with the Chinese mate, they are even more ruthless than Mugabe once they get their hands on a country.
The question which still remains unanswered is why is there a lot of fuss about this investment which was made in the 60s. Pre-independence no-one seemed to have an issue, now some 40 plus yrs later it is a problem.
To assume that this paper can be used as an effective propaganda tool is to relegate the majority of the readership of this paper to beings incapable of sifting through fact & fiction.
Consider this the bulk of the readership are urban folk who happen to be black people & inspite of the so called cheap propoganda machine progressively vote more and more for the opposition to the point where all urban consituiences are now represented by the opposition. Suggesting that this is evidence of the fact that the readership are politically educated enough to think straight & know what is good for them anyway.
A cold objective assessment of the paper will reveal that local political issues make up 25% of the paper, the remaining 80% covers international stories from various correspondents quoted verbatum, sport & commercials ads from individuals & corporations. The latter being the main reason people in Zimbabwe read this paper apart from the need to know the psych of ZANU.
I suggest that the few of us raging over this topic pause for a minute to reflect on the ability of the Zim people to make rational decisions on matters that concern them.
OM’s investment activities in this country have touched the lives of millions.