There should be a cost to doing business with the Mugabe regime

Zimobserver

The BBC is now reporting that Giesecke & Devrient have announced that they will immediately stop providing the paper for the banknotes following a 'political and moral assessment of the conditions there."

However, I understand that they only provided half the paper, and that there are other suppliers elsewhere.

oldtimer

The Wall Street Journal says they will stop supplying Zimbabwe in response to international pressure.

Laughing Larry

The fixation on Zim is now going over the top. There are plenty of countries that are run by despots (Egypt) the list goes on. I suppose it makes some people feel very moral!

Chuck Unsworth

Does anyone here believe that bank notes can not be printed elsewhere? China, perhaps?

It's an entirely transportable process.

cityboozer

Chuck - of course it can, but there's a point at which we should say "enough is enough, we don't want to make money this way". If you defend globalisation, it's good to find a counterexample to those who claim that it's just a race to the bottom.

Chuck Unsworth

Cityboozer,

Don't misunderstand me. I agree with your principled stance, but I'm also of the view that such a ban will have no practical effect on Mugabe. Equally it's clear that Mugabe is entirely impervious to moral and political (note the differences!) pressure. So the move does little to help the population.

Frankly I'd rather see Mugabe eliminated with prejudice. A trial - if such were ever to happen - would be a pointless waste of money. What Zimbabwe needs above all else is a decent and honourable government by people with real ability and integrity.

The question is - how many of such people are there in Zimbabwe?

As to 'we don't want to make money this way', sadly you are asking for a change in the ethical standards of most businesses world-wide - in my experience anyway.

Cinnamon

Congratulations for freeing precious dollars for the Mugabe regime and by risking manufacturing jobs in Europe. Mugabe will find better uses than buying banknotes for his bucks/euros (weapons etc) and his minion will simply print new values onto existing notes as has been done before by other hyperinflation-inflicted countries.

There is also the point to be made that money no longer is currency in Zim anyway, as it doesn't buy much (if anything at all can be bought).

Finally, nothing you do boycott or otherwise will change the fact that a criminal clique around Mugabe runs Zim, aided and abetted by the rest of Africa's leaders.

Cutting African aid that props up those tinpot despots would be far more effective than bashing one of our own European manufacturing companies...

This is mindless vanity politics by Boris, let's hope he makes better decisions in future, so far, he has not impressed at all, he is turning out to be a blonder type of Ken, alas.

jonathan

Cinamon:

"Congratulations for freeing precious dollars for the Mugabe regime and by risking manufacturing jobs in Europe. Mugabe will find better uses than buying banknotes for his bucks/euros (weapons etc) and his minion will simply print new values onto existing notes as has been done before by other hyperinflation-inflicted countries.

There is also the point to be made that money no longer is currency in Zim anyway, as it doesn't buy much (if anything at all can be bought)."

I'm sorry but this is nonsense on stilts. While barter and other cashless transactions are increasing, cash is still vital in Zim . Removing the ability to print more cash is actually going to be a massive problem for Mugabe as that is his only policy for dealing with the economy.

By the way, they already tried over printing and decided it couldn't be done effectively at these rates of inflation.

He will have to replace the contract very quickly.