President Robert Mugabe has assured South African-owned sugar processing giant Tongaat Hulett it will be protected from war veterans and landless locals calling for the company to cede land. Tongaat Hulett’s operations in Zimbabwe have in the past decade been targets of politically motivated takeovers. First it was the indigenisation drive, in which the company was to sell a majority ownership to local owners. However‚ it argued that through its contract farming scheme it was already indigenised. Lately‚ politicians in Masvingo province have been pushing ahead with plans to invade the company’s sugar cane estates. However, buoyed by bilateral trade agreements between SA and Zimbabwe‚ Tongaat Hulett managed to stay put. "Those that are now demanding that they takeover some of his farm land (Tongaat Hulett)‚ that cannot happen. This is not unique to the sugar cane farms‚" Mugabe said at a rally. Last week‚ presenting financial results for the year to end-March‚ company secretary Bigbo...
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