Grace Mugabe claims she refused $10m bribe
First Lady Grace Mugabe yesterday said she turned down a $10 million bribe from some white farmers who wanted to use her to influence President Mugabe to abandon the land reform programme.
The First Lady said this while addressing thousands of people on the third leg of her Meet The People Tour at the City Sports Centre in Harare yesterday.
Grace described President Mugabe as a principled leader who had also refused gifts from people seeking favours from him.
“President Mugabe is a principled, humble, upright man who does not flatter to deceive. I’ve realised that such an approach brings peace of mind. If you know you are clean you don’t shy away from berating evil deeds. If money could buy everything it’s intended to buy, our revolution could have gone off kilter yet some of our people never learn that the money that they receive from outsiders is dirty money.
“If we’re to get money from abroad, it must be for the benefit of all. If it’s given to an individual, he tends to lose focus but often the money is so little. What about the rest of the people? Think about the people,” she said.
Grace then described how various people had tried to bribe the First Family in an attempt to reverse the land reform programme.
“We’ve been through a lot,” she said. “The President received a lot of offers to betray the revolution. Some said they wanted to build him a house, but he said if you want to donate, donate to the party.
“I don’t think it was given to the party. They wanted to bribe him. When some saw that they had failed to corrupt the President, they approached me thinking they would succeed.
“I can’t be bought also, because if I’m given money secretly God will notice. Some whites came to me with $10 million and I told them ‘stupid don’t ever come here again; don’t ever call my office again!’ I told them that they were insulting me, what’s 10 million to me?
“You think I can’t work for $10 million? What about Zimbabwe? Start by giving every Zimbabwean $10 million. I told him off, I almost spat on his face. I said ‘I don’t want to hear anything about you, don’t ever come here because you want me to influence my husband to engage in corruption,’” she said.
Grace Mugabe said she was aware of the bad things that were being said about her, but said she had developed a thick skin and would not be swayed from her stance on empowering Zimbabweans.
