Bill Gates’ acquisition of a stake of JSE-listed Anheuser-Busch InBev has brought out the conspiracy theorists in many beer-drinking South Africans.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation bought shares in AB InBev, which owns staple Mzansi beer brands like Black Label, Castle, and Windhoek.
1,703,000 shares were purchased by the foundation in the JSE-listed brewer, valued at $96,594,000. Ab InBev comprises only 0.23% of the foundation’s portfolio.
As reported by My Broadband, the second quarter of 2023 has seen the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Trust’s value of its share portfolio increase to a record $42.06 billion as it added to its stake in Warren Buffett-owned Berkshire Hathaway and bought JSE-listed AB InBev.
These developments have startled beer some local guzzlers who think Gates might use this to implant monitoring microchips in billions of people, through beer.
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“He will continue the legacy of the Apartheid regime…what they did in tap water, vaccines, alcohol and maize meal,” wrote Dipoho Sakeng on Facebook.
“He is gonna put vaccine in the alcohol,” commented Pheaha Masedi, tailed by crying emojis.
Some jokingly see this as an opportunity to quit alcohol because of their distrust of the IT billionaire’s true intentions.
Ever since the Coronavirus pandemic, the wealthy Microsoft co-founder has been associated with the origins of the virus and using it as a tool for unfathomable world control.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged at least $1.75 billion overall to the global pandemic response effort, including supporting the development of vaccines and treatments.
Together with US physician-scientist Dr. Anthony Fauci, they were objects of conspiracy theories. “Nobody would have predicted that I and Fauci would be so prominent in these really evil theories,” Gates told Reuters.
“I’m very surprised by that [and] I hope it goes away,” he added. Previously, Gates has called the theories “bizarre,” saying he’d “never been involved in any microchip type thing.”
“It’s almost hard to deny this stuff because it’s so stupid or strange that even to repeat it gives it credibility,” said Gates.
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