ZIMBABWE'S President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace have secretly bought a £4m bolt-hole in the Far East while his country struggles with hyper-inflation, mass unemployment and a cholera epidemic.The Mugabes' house, in an exclusive residential complex in Hong Kong,
was purchased on their behalf by a middleman through a shadowy company
whose registered office is in a run-down tenement block. When a
reporter and a photographer called at the house last week, they were
attacked by the Zimbabwean occupants. The assailants were questioned by
the police.
The property came to light during a Sunday Times investigation into the
Mugabes' financial interests in Asia, where a web of associates has
helped them to spend lavishly on luxuries and stash away millions in
bank accounts. In Zimbabwe, meanwhile, inflation has reached 231m%,
unemployment stands at 94% and 3,467 people have died in recent months
from cholera.
According to sources in Zimbabwe and Asia, Grace Mugabe has splashed
out £55,500 on marble statues in Vietnam and £8,700 on a handbag in
Singapore. She and her husband have enjoyed some of the region's finest
hotels.
In Hong Kong, where she has discussed a venture to have Zimbabwean
diamonds cut and polished in China, her aides paid one hotel bill with
a bag of cash containing £10,500.
The Hong Kong house is the first in the Far East to be identified as
the Mugabes'. Last Friday two men and a woman objected violently to the
arrival of this newspaper's journalists.
The throat of Colin Galloway, a 46-year-old reporter, was gripped and
bruised by a man in his thirties who lifted him off his feet. Galloway
was later examined under police supervision at hospital.
Tim O'Rourke, 45, was grabbed by the neck in his second bruising
encounter involving the Mugabes in Hong Kong. Last month Grace Mugabe
flew at him with her fists after repeatedly punching another Sunday
Times photographer in the face in an incident that attracted worldwide
publicity.
Hong Kong police said last night that inquiries into a case of alleged common assault on Friday were continuing.
The disclosures about the Mugabes' Far Eastern interests are certain to
anger Zimbabweans already outraged by extravagant celebrations laid on
for the dictator's 85th birthday this week.