Edinburgh University’s investments have helped to prop up Robert Mugabe’s dictatorship in Zimbabwe, Student can reveal.

Edinburgh University's investments have helped to prop up Robert Mugabe's dictatorship in Zimbabwe, Student can reveal.

An investigation conducted by Student has unveiled that the University holds substantial shares in Barclays, Tesco, BP and Royal Dutch Shell; companies which have been severely criticised for their close links to the failed African state.

Between them, BP and Shell control 40 per cent of Zimbabwe’s petrol market, distributing fuel to over 200 sites around the company through BP/Shell Marketing Services Ltd. BP also has 70 employees in the country.

Tesco is one of several British supermarkets to source food from Zimbabwe and Dr Vincent Magombe, director of the pressure group African Inform International, has accused the company of taking food “watered by the blood and tears of the Zimbabwean people”.

Barclays has attracted the greatest controversy for its Zimbabwean operations. It owns two-thirds of Barclays Bank Zimbabwe and has to buy 23m in government bonds under the terms of its license. It also contributes to a government loan scheme which is thought to have lent money to at least five ministers for farm improvements.

The recent findings come just over a year after the University of Edinburgh publically stripped Mugabe of his honorary degree.

Mugabe was awarded the honour for services to education in Africa in 1984 but it was revoked last June with outgoing EUSA President Tim Goodwin calling the degree an ‘embarrassment’ to the university.

In light of the recent allegations ethical investment campaigner Ruth Cape said: “As students of Edinburgh University, we should be able to feel secure in the knowledge that we are part of an institution with some ethics and pride. Instead, there is only ambiguity and hypocrisy as we are led to believe that the university condemns Mugabe’s actions while essentially funding his regime in the background.” EUSA President Adam Ramsay said he was ‘disappointed’ with Edinburgh’s dubious investment but vowed to campaign through the official university channels to tackle the issue: “We’re proud to have got rid of Mugabe’s honorary degree...I would be keen to make sure the university maintains its ethical investment standards and would work with the university to ensure this” he told Student.

The exact number of shares which the University of Edinburgh holds in the four companies is unknown, but it is thought to be a substantial amount because the latest annual financial report published in July 2007 stated that the university holds over £209m worth of shares across 109 companies.

All four companies have defended their dealings in the country, arguing that there is little employment available in Zimbabwe, and it would therefore be irresponsible to withdraw their money from the state.

However, Prime Minister Gordon Brown has recently urged companies with dealings in Zimbabwe to examine their consciences and think again before ‘supporting’ the Mugabe regime in this way.

The University of Edinburgh has a much vaunted, Socially Responsible Investment policy which states that “it is possible for any group within the University to draw attention to any investment held by the University that is considered ‘unethical.’”

The policy also states that ‘the key criterion against which specific cases would be considered would be whether the activity complained of was wholly contrary to the university’s value systems…or in regard to wider issues of social, environmental and humanitarian concern.’

Based on this criterion, many students believe that the University’s investment in BP, Shell, Tesco and Barclays contravenes its own ethical investment policy, particularly in light of links to Mugabe’s internationally condemned regime.

Mugabe’s Zanu-PF party has been accused of numerous human rights violations as well as rigging the Presidential election in the summer, sending the fragile country into a spiralling economic and political crisis. Last Thursday a power-sharing deal was announced between Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai , the leader of the opposition MDC party but after many false dawns in Zimbabwe, it remains to be seen whether this agreement will last.

The University of Edinburgh’s investment policy has previously attracted controversy after Student reported last year that the institution invested £647 219 worth of shares in oil company Total.

The French company has been described by Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi as: “the main supporter of the Burmese military regime” and after details of the University of Edinburgh’s investment emerged, students voted overwhelmingly to disinvest from Total at the Annual General Meeting last November.

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Investment vetting process? John Herrman (78.86.131.xxx) 2008-09-28 09:21:47 This is the second time in as many years that something like this has happened -- surely by now the university ought to have someone doing at least a cursory vetting of the 109 companies we're invested in. Perhaps paying a student a few pounds an hour instead of relying on the student media to do the work would prevent this from happening year after year? Reply 0   1

An inconvenient truth... Mark C (87.194.119.xxx) 2008-09-28 10:32:55 Unfortunately it is an inconvenient truth that there are very few, if any large multinational companies that could be considered "ethical"- they will be built on the sweat and tears of somebody, somewhere. Perhaps what we need is a EUSA vetted list of companies that the University is allowed to do business with though I can't see shares in Honest Bobs Organic Hemp Juice factory being as valuable or as stable as shares in Shell. Meanwhile instead of the trustafarians bleating on about the University having shares in "unethical" companies it would be nice if they brought attention to the valuable research work the University is doing in fields such as renewable energy, cleaning contaminated water and malaria treatment. Oh dear, I'm actually starting to sound like a right-winger... Reply 0   1

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