Grace Mugabe out shopping in Rome this past week.
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08 June 2008
By Basildon Peta and Staff Reporter
Grace Mugabe collected US $80 000 from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) for her latest shopping spree in Rome, according to authoritative sources.
The move infuriated some top central bank officials who described it as "reckless and inhuman".
"It's common cause that we need every penny of forex we can get to buy food and other basics. We don't have any money for designer clothes," said a top RBZ official.
Grace's latest cash handout came after she was given another $100 000 of scarce foreign currency by the central bank to finance her holiday with President Robert Mugabe and their three children in Thailand and Malaysia in January.
"Every one of their foreign trips is an opportunity to raid the central bank forex coffers. It's so unfortunate because we simply don't have the money for her kind of purposes, …" said another RBZ source.
Although one greenback was fetching at least 1.5 billion Zimbabwe dollars on the parallel market this week, Grace bought her US$80 000 at the old fixed exchange rate of US$1 to Z$30 000.
The sources said this all effectively meant she got the money for free.
Zimbabweans now cynically refer to Grace as the "First Shopper" and not "First Lady".
Although Mugabe, Grace and their top cronies are banned in Europe, they are still free to travel to UN summits.
They were therefore able to attend this week's UN food summit in Rome, despite the fact that Mugabe's destructive policies have made his countrymen desperately short of food back home.
While Mugabe attended summit sessions, sources said Grace remained ensconced in a R11 000-a-night suite, with a spa bath, at the Ambasciatori Palace Hotel.
Aware that the world press was keeping an eye on her, she did not make any public shopping appearances, preferring to shop through her aides or via prior arrangements with designer shops.
The ability of other top Mugabe cronies to access cheap forex at the central bank in Harare has enabled them to leave a luxury lifestyle while the country burns.
Meanwhile, companies that need forex to import machinery and inputs for production have to either resort to the expensive black market or simply close shop.-Cape Argus.
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