Petition Old Mutual to stop funding Zimbabwe’s state-controlled media
South African insurance giant, Old Mutual confirmed this week that it was a major shareholder in ZimPapers, the publishing group that produces some of Zimbabwe’s most vitriolic propaganda.
According to People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP) – a South African refugee rights group – Old Mutual is the second largest shareholder in ZimPapers.
There are two clauses in Article 19 of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) that highlight the damaging effect an absence of press freedom has had on Zimbabweans lives:
(d) that steps be taken to ensure that the public media provides balanced and fair coverage to all political parties for their legitimate political activities.
(e) that the public and private media shall refrain from using abusive languagee that may incite hostility, political intolerance and ethnic hatred or that unfairly undermines political parties and other organisations. To this end, the inclusive government shall ensure that appropriate measures are taken to achieve this objective.
It is important that people outside Zimbabwe understand that the propaganda in Zimbabwe is not limited to merely putting one party’s political position over the other. The public media has been used to incite hatred, to vilify groups of people in Zimbabwe, to lie and try and generate hatred and anger towards people.It would be fair to say that much of the hatred and lack of tolerance demonstrated by some of the thugs in Zimbabwe can be linked in some part to a daily diet of hate-speak which, in the absence of a free press, is distilled in the minds of some as ‘the truth’.
The fact that the State has enacted some of the most repressive legislation in the world under AIPPA, reveals how much they understand that the way for their lies to flourish is to do all they can to squeeze out and silence the truth. Consequently, journalists have been arrested and threatened, newspaper banned, publishing offices were bombed in the early days.
Old Mutual’s support for ZimPapers has enabled the ZANU PF regime to get away with a heinous abuse of the human rights of free expression and free opinions in a country struggling to let freedom and democracy flourish, and to end violence.
PASSOP’s Braam Hanekom, a Zimbabwean born activist, does not mince his words on this point. Hannekom told SW Radio Africa on Wednesday that
Old Mutual was essentially ‘arming’ the state media, arguing “this is politically equivalent to putting bullets into the guns that kill opposition voices in Zimbabwe.” Hanekom has demanded that Old Mutual publicly withdraw its stake in Zimpapers, saying the group’s refusal to do so will point towards a business relationship based purely on corruption.
PASSOP have started a petition and they are calling on people to sign it. Please sign the petition and pass on the message to everyone you know to do the same!
The petition reads:
To: Julian Roberts, CEO, Old Mutual
Subject: Withdraw Support for Zimbabwe Newspapers Ltd. and the Mugabe Regime
Dear Mr. Roberts,
After being subjected to years of threats, intimidation, and violence by the dictatorial Mugabe regime, there are few outlets for independent press left in Zimbabwe. State-run newspapers like The Herald have filled the void that remains with reporting that is entirely and unashamedly one-sided. They are run by editorial staff that are so insulated from criticism that they no longer make any pretence of impartiality or respect for freedom of press. The newspapers operated by the state through Zimbabwe Newspapers Ltd. (including The Herald, The Sunday Mail, Kwayedza, The Sunday News, The Chronicle, and The Manica Post) are among Zanu PF’s most vital tools for retaining its place as one of the most infamously corrupt and brutal governments of the last decade.
It has come to our attention that Old Mutual is the second largest shareholder in Zimbabwe Newspapers Ltd. and is thus guilty of directly supporting the Mugabe regime. While the international community, appalled by the actions of the Zanu PF leadership, imposes sanctions on Zimbabwe, your company’s investment is essentially arming Mugabe’s propaganda machine, the equivalent to loading bullets into the guns that kill oppositional voices in Zimbabwe. In light of the detrimental effects of forced migration of recent years, we consider your interest in the company a direct attack on the impoverished people of not only Zimbabwe, but also those of South Africa. We are shocked and dismayed that a company with so much to lose, considering its international profile, has chosen to include the Mugabe regime’s propaganda newspapers in its investment portfolio.
We demand that Old Mutual publicly withdraw its stakes in Zimbabwe Newspapers Ltd. and openly apologise for an investment that we sincerely hope was an accidental oversight on your part. Should Old Mutual ignore this request, we will be forced to embark on protest actions, and plan to engage as many Old Mutual policy holders as possible.
Sincerely,
November 13th, 2009 00:13
I’ve just signed the petition, and will be passing it on to as many people as possible. A special Thank You to Braam Hanekom for taking a stand on this. As the old saying goes: All it takes for evil to prevail, is for a good man to do nothing.
November 14th, 2009 14:08
While I agree that arms of repression should never be funded directly of inditectly, I feel this petition is baseless to say the least. It displays a great deal of misrepresentation of the relationship between Zimpapers and Old Mutual.
The first argument I will put across is what needs to be appreciated from an investment point of view is that Old Mutual does NOT fund Zimpapers by way of a shareholding. If one buys shares in a company listed on the stock exchange, that money does not go to the company at all but to the other party who is selling.
The second point is Old Mutual manages millions of dollars on behalf of mostly pension funds and other policy holders. There is absolutely no way that Old Mutual can reliquish their shareholding in Zimpapers without seriously financially hurting the same ordinary person this petition is supposed to be fighting for.
On the whole, people need to understand how stock markets work before raising a petition such as this. I will say again Zimpapers does not benefit a cent from Old Mutual’s shareholding unless they get a loan maybe by way of a bond or the float a rights issue which OM will take up.
Ngatifungei nepfungwa kwete nemwoyo
November 14th, 2009 20:10
According to Ngatifungei Nepfungwa, Old Mutual is not in a business with an eye to profits but is instead a charitable organisation with only the interests of it’s policy holders at heart. I think Ngatifungei Nepfungwa has confused Old Mutuals’ advertising campaigns for philanthropy. Of course Old Mutual does provide a financial support service to Zimpapers by way of handling the movement of its shares, irrespective of who is first or third party in the transaction. More importantly though is the principle that shareholders have the right to be informed of how their money is being used and/or generated. The petition serves to educate policy holders and investors if they are unwittingly, and against their moral judgement, complicit with an anti-democratic and war/hate mongering organ of a repressive regime.
If Sainsburys were to inform me that they were buying their mange-tout from a ZANU-PF stolen farm, but it’s all above board because they actually buy it through a middleman, does that excuse them. And as a purchaser of said legumes would I feel absolved.
By the way, I signed the petition, and I take care in purchasing my mange-tout!
November 15th, 2009 20:46
@Malcolm – I am not sure where it is exactly from my contribution I indicate that Old Mutual are in business for charity.
The mange-tout and stolen farm analogue is exactly an example of the misrepresentation I am talking about. The relationship between OM and Zimpapers is nowhere close to that example. The only time it will be is if Old Mutual advertises in the Herald or Sunday Mail, something they can do even if they don’t hold a single share (hundreds other businesses do so anyway)
The people who fund Zimpapers are the ordinary man on the street who buy the paper because they are “only interested” in the classified section and “don’t read the news”. It is all those who sell their cell phones and print cartridges through the classified columns of the Herald who finance Zimpapers more that Old Mutual can ever do simply by holding their shares.
Protest for the sake of protest at times strengthens the hand it is suppose to fight. The Zimbabwean situation requires rationale. I am not saying we must rationalise murder, rape, corruption and all the henious acts perpetrated on our people in the name of sovereignty but our reaction to such should be based on valid facts which fit the argument.
I will again say, Old Mutual can not and does not fund Zimpapers simply by holding their shares, neither will they by buying some more. This petition should perhaps be pressurising OM to use their shareholding to influence the editorial policy of Zimpapers (if they can without being told to leave the country)
November 16th, 2009 10:58
@Ngatifungei
Nepfungwa
I have some little sums invested with Old Mutual in South Africa. I am very upset about the company “investing” in such poor perfomers whichever way you look at it. How much return is their investment on these papers considering that not many people buy these papers any more and also that most would be able to get it “free” online? I am also concerned that perharps my money is inderectely or directly invested with these papers whom I have a lot of reservations about. I am wary about newspapers irrespective of who owns them since there is always biase in the reporting.
November 16th, 2009 12:13
So it makes no difference to Old Mutual which shares of a company they buy, and it makes no difference to the company who buys their shares. Furthermore it seems to be argued that that buying and selling of shares make no difference to the financial structure of either the buyer or seller.Seems like a pointless activity all round.
What, then, is Old Mutual worried about if asked to stop their share association with Zimpapers if the public and Old Mutual customers petition them to do so? The Zimbabwe situation may require rationale, part of which must be based on morality and principle. It is these facets which Old Mutual is being taken to task with. Morality and principles cost nothing, and this is exactly what it will cost both OM and Zimpapers, as has been pointed out.
OM can’t be absolved from being part and parcel of keeping Zimpapers’ presses alive by pointing fingers at others, such as advertisers, as being the more guilty.
November 16th, 2009 17:45
Old Mutual has shares in these papers because they’re hoping to profit from the sale of them.
These papers are being used as the instrument of an illegitimate leader to spread vicious lies and propaganda that result in hardship for millions of Zimbabweans. Forget about the little technicalities. Can’t Old Mutual find a more palatable way of making money? Mugabe is no longer the legitimate leader of Zimbabwe, he’s there because the elected leadership was PERSUADED by SADC to co-operate with Mugabe…and now he uses these papers for his own gain.
The purpose of the petition is to bring OM’s attention to the fact that people are objecting to their involvement with “tainted goods”. Just as OM can decide which company’s shares they want to buy, so can the ordinary investor decide if they still want to deal with OM or not, after this.
November 16th, 2009 17:57
“Although not bound by international law, corporations have a duty towards their stakeholders, as well as the societies within which they generate profits. Investment in a well-known state mouthpiece like the Zimbabwe Herald, as well as in diamond mining operations implicated in human rights abuses, is a fundamental breach of that obligation. Old Mutual needs to take a moral standpoint which matches these ethical obligations. Old mutual advertises on its homepage (http://www.oldmutual.com/vpage.jsp?vpage_id=2746) that it honours the UN Global Compact. Principles 1 and 2 of the compact state that companies should support and protect internationally accepted human rights, and that they should not be complicit in human rights violations. On the face of it, Old Mutual is cynically using the notion of corporate responsibility as an empty PR exercise. It is a sad fact that only the bite of public outcry will force them to reconsider their investments.”
This comment was made by one of the signatories on the petition, and I tend to agree with them…
ONLY THE BITE OF PUBLIC OUTCRY WILL FORCE THEM TO RECONSIDER THEIR INVESTMENTS
November 16th, 2009 18:24
My issue is with equating Old Mutual’s shareholding to funding Zimpapers operations. What the petition should be pushing for is OM to just end the relationship they have with Zimpapers on moral grounds or as I suggested earlier use that shareholding to lobby for editorial change rather than because they are funding or arming the state’s tools of repression. OM’s relinquishing of Zimpapers shares will not alter, a single bit, Zimpaper’s financial fortunes (or misfortunes these days). Those responding please tell me how?
The second paragraph of the petition is just too full of unnecessary vocabulary which I don’t necessarily feel aids the cause at all. No one, and I mean not a single person, can actually prove that OM is arming or funding Zimpapers simply because they hold shares in OM. It’s all nice and well to be angry about what has and continues to happen in Zimbabwe, but if change is going to be achieved, there is no need to sensationalise issues. It is this sensationalism that Zanu PF feeds on and in most cases has actually helped to sustain their hold on power.
Once again I will state that this petition is a misrepresentation of facts regarding the OM/Zimpapers which does little to help the situation on the ground.
November 16th, 2009 20:43
If OM’s abundant shareholding has no effect on Zimpapers that, in itself, supposes that Zimpapers has no use in having shares on the market. Why do these shares exist, and why did OM see fit to have so many of them?
If OM offloads the Zimpapers shares they hold, and perhaps cause a loss of share value and reluctance of buyers to purchase said shares, are we being led to belive that Zimpapers board will react with nothing more than a ‘oh, bummer’ response and carry on as usual.
‘If one buys shares in a company listed on the stock exchange, that money does not go to the company at all but to the other party who is selling.’ wrote Ngatifungei Nepfungwa.
So, OM holds these Zimpaper shares, hoping to sell them and make a whole load of money, but they will not be actually making profit from Zimpapers! I ask if a company who suddenly loses it’s major shareholder is not going to be in financial and operational trouble?
As for sensationalising issues that become grist to Mugabes’ mill, I find that no excuse for pussyfooting around the mans’ warped sensibilities. More-so when he is a past master at creating his own mountains out of molehills. So what’s he going to complain about with respect to OM/Zimpapers? That somebody is trying to derail his party propaganda machine? I don’t think he’ll garner too much sympathy on that score.
Well, it is a worry off my mind that I can now look to buying shares (through an agent – morally cleaner apparently) in Chinese arms manufacturers, dolphin unfriendly tuna factories, philipine sweat shop traders, Japanese whaling enterprises, a variety of diamond companies whose sources are questionable – all in the knowledge that I’m not actually helping those companies stay in existence. Those shares are there simply to make me, and/or my agent, money.