Oyster firm dropped over Zimbabwe link

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Munich-based firm Giesecke and Devrient, which manufactures the plastic travel cards, provides banknotes to Robert Mugabe's central bank.

Boris Johnson promised Transport for London would not renew its contract with the firm, which is subcontracted through Oyster card suppl ier EDS.

The Mayor said he was "hugely frustrated" to discover the indirect link between his City Hall administration and the brutal dictatorship of Robert Mugabe.

Human rights campaigners War On Want urged the millions of Londoners who regularly use Oyster cards to boycott them until the contract comes to an end next month.

Charity spokesman Paul Collins said: "For those who can afford it it shows empathy with the people suffering in Zimbabwe.

"The move by the Mayor to show British organisations shouldn't help the regime profit is a good thing."

Mr Johnson told The Standard: "It is a huge frustration to learn that there is any link between the Oyster card and a firm providing services to Zimbabwe."

Foreign Office Minister Lord Malloch-Brown, who has hit out at G&D, has told British firms they will find it harder to operate in Zimbabwe as sanctions against the regime tightened.