o Swiss giant Nestle has suspended all operations in Zimbabwe. This, it says, follows harassment by government officials and police after it aborted a lucrative deal to buy milk from a farm taken over by Robert Mugabe’s wife, Grace, after the owner was forced to sell it for a fraction of its value. (see SWISS MISS, Marketing Matters, October 2009)

o Two South African managers of a dairy company linked to Tetra Pak, DeLaval, have left the company after it was revealed by the Daily Telegraph that they had sold equipment to the above farm. Grace Mugabe, 44, is on the EU list of people subject to sanctions, being a financial beneficiary of Robert Mugabe’s brutal regime.