Another sign that the madness and death in Zimbabwe may be coming to an end soon. With the recent installation of the Compromise government in Harare, The London Times has apparently found Robert Mugabe’s place to run and hide when Zimbabwe implodes; and it’s in Hong Kong:
Found: Robert Mugabe’s secret bolthole in the Far East
February 15, 2009ZIMBABWE’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.Ha-ha-ha, Ho-ho-ho, and a couple of Tra-la-las . . .
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.
Grace Mugabe was previously discussed in the assault on The Times reporter:
Grace Mugabe, 43, known as the First Shopper of Zimbabwe, flew into a rage when she was spotted last week leaving the exclusive Shangri-La hotel in Hong Kong. She has been staying there with her entourage at a cost of £2,000 a day while her country endures poverty, hunger and disease.
Jones, 42, suffered nine cuts, abrasions and bruises to the face and head caused by the heavy, diamond-encrusted rings Mugabe was wearing, according to a medical report by Dr Raymond Ng, a general practitioner in Hong Kong.
Mugabe and her female companion fled around a corner seeking to hide their faces, only to run straight into a second photographer, Tim O’Rourke.
He snapped a few pictures before she flew at him with her fists flying, pulled his hair and tried to smash his camera.
She then hurried back to her five-star refuge.
“She was standing there in a mad rage, screaming something at me, and just kept lining up the punches, all into my face. She had some nice jewelery and was aware it would cut me, I’m sure. She looked totally deranged.
There had been speculation in Zimbabwe that the president would cancel his annual holiday in the face of a growing economic and political crisis. The country is beset by a cholera epidemic that has claimed more than 2,100 lives. Annual inflation has soared to more than 231m% and a Z$100 trillion banknote was introduced on Friday. Dozens of activists have been detained, accused of plotting to overthrow the regime.
Nevertheless the Mugabes went ahead with their holiday. While the president stayed on in Singapore until January 11 before flying home, his wife flew to Hong Kong on January 9 and installed herself in the £600-a-night Harbour suite on the 18th floor of the Shangri-La.
Grace Mugabe is more than 40 years younger than her 84-year-old husband. Formerly his secretary and mistress, she finally married him in 1996 after the death of his wife of 30 years, Sally, a Ghanaian intellectual. They have three children, Bona, Robert and Chatunga. Grace Mugabe has often been blamed for encouraging her husband’s extreme views. Last year she said he would never surrender power.
Since becoming first lady, she has spent a fortune on foreign shopping trips, built a mansion in Harare, dubbed Gracelands, and acquired several formerly white-owned farms. Once, when asked why she spent thousands on expensive Ferragamo shoes while her people starved, she replied: “I have very narrow feet, so I wear only Ferragamo.”
There is a very, very special place in Hell reserved for Mugabe and for his lovely, deranged mistress-wife, I’m sure. Hopefully, they’ll flee like weasels soon and Zimbabwe can start healing soon.
~~JD~~
We use vets to put down violent animals but at times I think we do it usinng a double standard. There are many hun animals world wide that deserve the same treatment. Just think of the monetary saving to the worlds prison systems if killers were simply put down instead of being kept alive at the tax payers expence.