This archive report was first published on 2 November 2019.
Grace Mugabe's Properties Under Threat ¶
Former first lady Grace Mugabe is embroiled in a dispute with President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government over the family's properties, including four farms with rich gold deposits, located west of Harare.
The farms, which have a dairy products factory, a private school, and an orphanage, were started by Mrs. Mugabe and are part of real estate worth millions of dollars she acquired during the violent takeovers of white-owned farms at the height of government land reforms in the past decade.
The government's actions are seen as revenge against Mugabe's widow over long-standing bad blood between herself and insiders in the ruling party Zanu-PF, and more recently the public tussle between her family and the government over Mugabe's burial.
Grace had been accused by the military in 2017 of hounding out her husband's successor and other veterans of the liberation struggle, just before the palace coup that brought President Mnangagwa to power.
President Mnangagwa's government has invited 'miners, potential mines and approved prospectors to show interest' in mining activities on the four farms, sparking allegations that the move is a revenge against Mugabe's widow.
Former Zimbabwean academic Alex Magaisa, based at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, says that the new administration was likely to go after Mrs. Mugabe to settle old scores.
Grace has remained virtually untouched since President Mnangagwa took power, yet those in the faction that backed her in the battle against the then vice president have since been forced into exile or have been arrested.
President Mnangagwa has publicly said that the party was in the process of handing over title deeds to the house and the family's Blue Roof mansion in Harare's Borrowdale district built by government funds.
However, the Mugabe family spokesperson Leo Mugabe said they had been assured that their properties would not be seized.
‘The issue of properties is being handled by the president,’ he told state-controlled media. ‘He is handling the issue to ensure that the family is safe.’
