Coca-Cola Accounts For Up To 40 Percent Of Swaziland's GDP: Activists

In one African nation, a giant American brand may be bringing corporate influence to a whole new level.

Coca-Cola accounts for as much as 40 percent of Swaziland's gross domestic product, according to activists cited by the Guardian. Coke owns a plant in Swaziland, a nation ruled by Mswati III -- Africa's last absolute monarch who many blame for human rights violations as well as stealing the country's wealth.

Swaziland is the lead exporter of Coke in Eastern and Southern Africa and close to half of the country's exports are based on sugar and drink concentrates, Foreign Policy reports. While it may be hard to verify the activists' numbers, statistics from other organizations still indicate that Coke controls a staggering amount of Swaziland's economy. Coke accounts for a minimum of 22 percent of Swaziland's GDP, according to a Foreign Policy analysis of World Bank data.

Activists as part of the Swaziland Solidarity Network have urged Coke to stop supporting Mswati III, but not to pull out of the country all together, according to the BBC. They've accused the company of supporting the monarch by taking out full-page ads in state-owned newspapers wishing him a happy birthday. Still, the company says it doesn't get involved in the politics of any country where it does business.

"Either you join the people or you remain on the side of the king [in which case] your future will be in the dustbin of history," Lucky Lukehele, one of the activists, told the BBC.

Though propping up a dictatorship is a harsh accusation, this isn't the first controversy the beverage giant has faced. In the mid-2000s, students at multiple universities aimed to get Coke banned from their campuses. The campaign, called "Killer Coke," came after the company allegedly turned a blind eye when some employees at its bottling companies in Colombia were killed and jailed over over-hyped terrorism charges, according to a 2006 article in Businessweek.

Activists also accused the company of exacerbating water scarcity issues, according to a 2005 article in the Economist. Coke allegedly used too much water at its bottling plants in areas in India that were prone to drought, leaving the regions' poor residents to fend for themselves, according to activists.

But the company's multinational presence likely boosts some regions. In Africa, the availability of the beverage in a given country can illustrate the nation's relative stability, according to NPR. In some regions, Coke is so ubiquitous that one man started an organization, which puts "pods" of medicine into the crates carrying Coke in some areas of Zambia where drugs are hard to come by, the BBC reports.

Comments

[mrluckyman]

11:33 AM on 01/06/2012

Why does this surprise anyone? Its an "American" company- BIG company-our big business dont give a poop about the "people" of this country, so why expect it to be any different just because they own companies in other countries? American business isnt prejudice when it comes to money, they will screw anyone that isnt in the 1%.

[structurequity]

09:03 AM on 01/06/2012

Coca Cola land

[theaustralian]

07:08 AM on 01/06/2012

i've stopped drinking cola products and sodas and have decided to drink green tea whilst listening to new orleans jazz as i read agatha christie novels.

hate all u want 'coke' heads.

[HellBank]

06:50 AM on 01/06/2012

Everything's better with Coke. Take rape rooms for instance.

[mrcontinental]

03:38 AM on 01/06/2012

Coca Cola does a wonderful job of cleaning my beryllium copper Ping golf club heads. It strips the tarnish off of them in no time at all. I can only assume that it would do the same to my insides so I never touch the stuff.

[sensimilla]

06:10 PM on 01/05/2012

exporting gen0c1d.e, malnutrition, false morality and corporate greed is what America does best!

[French Toast]

03:31 PM on 01/05/2012

Wiki Fanta. You're welcome.

[Another Random Guy]

10:36 AM on 01/06/2012

Gross. I knew there was a reason, other than the horribly unattractive packaging and annoying songs, that I didn't drink that stuff!

[loki]

03:12 PM on 01/05/2012

how did coke get so big? Because in the days when things weren't fast and furious, I want it all now , people invested in coke and just let the money ride. They didn't sell stock the second some anal-yst claimed they were meeting the expected performance and profit levels. They sat there and let their money work. And after 20 years, they were all multi millionaires. But , no longer today. Everyone wants the millions by tomorrow at 5, or its not considered a good investment. Anal-yst acts as if "trees grow to the sky" { old Chinese saying} and if profits dont rise quarter after quarter, year after year, the companies are dropped. So many companies that might have been the next coke were destroyed by this need for instant millions. and its mostly done by those who already have billions and dont need the money at all. Not by the little people like you and me.

[rikster]

02:21 PM on 01/05/2012

Coca Cola has an Amerikan name but it is not an Amerikan company.

[mrluckyman]

11:51 AM on 01/06/2012

Thats not true. It is an American based company. It has changed hands and locations but has always been in the US. We send the concentrate to other countries, where they dilute, bottle and distribute then sell the product.Considering you have a computer at your fingetips why would you make something up, when all you had to do, was a tiny bit of research? While you are at it,you might want to take an extra second to look up the differences between America and Amerika. Good grief.

[Jennifer Kley]

10:01 AM on 01/05/2012

I only use Coca Cola when there's nothing else around to pour over my car battery.

http://thecubiclerebel.wordpress.com/

[loki]

03:15 PM on 01/05/2012

it has citric acid, which is in most food products. Its even the stuff that makes candies and juices tart tasting. You can buy it at the grocery store, put it in water, and it will do the same thing coke does, because its the same thing as in coke. Its also used by the steel industry to strip rust from metals and to clean metal products. Jewelers use it in place of the toxic pickles for gold and silver, and you eat it every day.

[rudymiller]

05:22 AM on 01/05/2012

This is not a surprise to me or anyone I am sure,unless you have been living under a rock that is.The bottom line is if you don't like it don't drink it plain and simple.Many companies are doing the same thing I am sure.

[wtfusa]

04:56 AM on 01/05/2012

I'm over 50, haven't placed the toxic swill near my lips since a 5th grade science "experiment," in which our (Scottish-born) science teacher Mrs. Munson placed a whole sardine in a pitri dish, filled it with coke, and the next morning we arrived to find the fish had been completely dissolved, nothing left but a disgusting brown slurry. "Just imagine what coke is doing to your insides" was all she said. That was enough for me. Thank you Mrs. Munson.

[Jennifer Kley]

10:02 AM on 01/05/2012

OH. MY. GOSH. Thanks for sharing this. Yet another story to add to my loathment of all things Coca Cola, the dominant crap of carbonated drinks.

http://thecubiclerebel.wordpress.com/

[oilfield]

01:57 PM on 01/05/2012

my oldest is 6 and my kids havent had one yet.....but when they are older and want to try it...i will do the same experiment...thanks for sharing.

[huff-puff-bluff]

04:42 AM on 01/05/2012

Another PROPAGANDA article....Did anyone READ the page..it says the actual number is about 22%, not 40% of the GNP as the false headline grabbing article speculates. Even if it is upwards of 30% how is this illegal, immoral, or unethical. They sell a product. it doesn;t cause cancer. It's not great for your body or teeth .still it's not going to kill anyone. What is the problem...they support a Monarchy? the USA supports MANY Dictators, regimes, and oppressors. What's the big problem here? In fact, the USA has strongholds in over 80 countries.. as Roger Waters wrote" they have..McDonalds in Tibet, Pepsi in the Andes, ." More Headline grabbing falsity. DONT write '40% when the actual number is reported as 22%

[PragmaticStatistic]

06:42 AM on 01/05/2012

Agreed. However, according to Wikipedia, " Some 75% of the population of Swaziland are employed in subsistence farming, and 60% of the population live on less than the equivalent of US$1.25 per day." That can of Coke they export to South Africa, a 340ml can, sells for around R5 which is 50 US cents. So what does that say about Swaziland's economic health? Thus, one supplier should never be such a big contributor to a nation's GDP. If a soda supplier is your biggest employer and financial producer, then your economy has serious problems and the one supplier has way too much influence in government. I realize Swaziland needs to start somewhere and Coke certainly is a good start. As for the 22% to 40% spread on Coke's GDP contribution, GDP and exports fluctuate and are hard to pin down. Many times they are restated months later. In a small country like Swaziland, they may not have the resources to pin the number down and that should have been address by the writer of the article.

[victorria]

04:18 AM on 01/05/2012

this sounds like a lot of opinions rather than facts. [ yaaawwnnnn........ ] sorry, i think i drank too much caffenated [ sp ?? ] and can't sleep. and am making too many typos, better kuh-witt for now. will have to read story again, to see just exactly what the main point is -- anybody have a brief/fairly acurate of story??


.............................................................. DIET COKE ROX...............................................................

[Phate James]

04:17 AM on 01/05/2012

I quit buying coke after they came out with cases of cans that only had 20 but they were still charging the price of the 24 pack. They give us less but keep charging more, and its a growing trend among other food and beverage companies. Next time you are grocery shopping just read the labels of the items you buy. What may have been a pound is now only 12 ounces, where you used to get a dozen or 24, now may only be 10 or 20. They are shorting everywhere but still charging the same prices and if you dont pay attention you get burned.

[knice1]

05:51 AM on 01/05/2012

It's called inflation, and it will continue to happen.

[oilfield]

01:58 PM on 01/05/2012

maybe we could raise the minimum wage to combat it....lol

[Phate James]

04:41 PM on 01/05/2012

Its inflation when they raise the price, its not inflation when they are calling a 12oz bag of coffee a pound or a 20 can pack a case. Its called DECEPTION! they package items in identically the same way except they give you less and hope you wont notice until its too late ro just accept it. I dont accept it and refuse to give in to the gougers of the world. If you want to roll over and take it up the wazoo then thats up to you but more people need to stand up and quit buying products from companies too busy trying to meet shareholders expectations instead of trying to offer a good product at a reasonable price.