For the first time we nominate a Company for the big prize. The company is Nestle. A Swiss based multinational food company.
Nestle place themselves in the frame as a Company with solid muntuist credentials by supporting and indeed profiting from the economic and social rape of Zimbabwe by world leading muntuist Robert Mugabe. Nestle and Mugabe - a partnership with big profits for both sides.
Here is the short version. (With thanks to The Telegraph, Pete Thornycroft in Harare and Sebastien Berger.)
Muntu Bob seizes farms from white farmers - occasionally killing the occupants in the process. These farms are then given over to his circle of friends. His wife Grace, a muntuist possessed with a formidable international reputation is given 6 (SIX) of the most valuable white-owned farms. They are not paid for in the conventional business sense - they are taken by force with a nominal pittance paid and given to the wife of the thief in-charge of the robbery. The wife - Grace (MGM - Muntu Grace Mugabe) then finds some difficulty selling her wares - as many a sanction is in place to register the appropriate disgust for this muntuist business practice. The EU and the US have comprehensive sanctions in place.
Nestle though - have a base in Switzerland, safe from EU law, but not safe from the the consequences of muntuist behavior.
MGM's properties total about 12,000 acres, but her most important is Gushungo Dairy Estate, formerly known as Foyle Farm. It is in Mazowe, about 30 miles north of the capital Harare.
MGM became a regular visitor as soon as the previous owner departed. Workers at the 2,400-acre property say it is now her farm, managed by Russell Goreraza, her son from her first marriage. MGM visits the farm several times a week. Under her occupation, the farm has become one of the few in the country to benefit from investment in recent years and has been lauded in The Herald, the state-controlled newspaper.
MGM has built a new residence on the farm, remodelled the original farmhouse and constructed an office block. The dairy produces 6,500 litres of milk a day, The Herald has said, which is only about 35 per cent of its output under the previous owner, who produced 6.5 million litres a year, more than any other dairy in Zimbabwe.
Her biggest customer is Nestlé Zimbabwe, the local subsidiary of the Swiss company.
The plant, in an industrial area in Msasa on the outskirts of the capital, manufactures powdered milk and cereals for the local market and for export to East African countries.
Mrs Mugabe uses an unmarked £100,000 tanker and trailer combination dedicated for her use to deliver milk three times a week to Nestlé's plant on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Harare.
Sources in the dairy industry and Nestlé itself say that MGM's trailer carries only 6,500 litres per delivery, which would amount to about one million litres a year in sales.
A spokesman at Nestlé's global headquarters in Switzerland was unable to confirm a precise figure, but said that the estimate was "reasonable".
He said: "At the end of last year we found ourselves operating in a market where eight of our 16 contractual suppliers had gone out of business. As a result, in early 2009 the company started purchasing milk on the open market from various suppliers on a strictly non-contractual basis. In certain instances the milk available in the market would be from Gushungo Dairy Estate." Such milk would be bought on a "cash on delivery" basis, he said, adding: "Nestlé has no direct engagement whatsoever with this estate."
But when asked to clarify whether it was bought directly or through a third party, he said: "We bought Gushungo Dairy Estate's milk through Dorkin Dairies until that firm collapsed last February, then we bought the milk directly."
Nestlé has spent years protecting its reputation amid other scandals, particularly allegations over the improper promotion of formula milk to nursing mothers in the Third World, which it denies, but which have led to consumer boycotts in the West.
American and European officials said that if Nestlé was subject to their rules it would be committing a criminal offense by trading with Mrs Mugabe.
For their invaluable contribution to maintaining the Mugabe regime we are happy to nominate NESTLE for the October Muntuist of the month award.
Don't forget to show your support for the Mugabe regime by buying Nestle products.
