Wife Leaves Mugabe To Shop

THE “first shopper” of Zimbabwe, Grace Mugabe, was holidaying at her family’s £4m Hong Kong residence this weekend as a political crisis at home brought President Robert Mugabe, her husband, under renewed international pressure.

She was whisked out for shopping and dining with burly bodyguards and her daughter Bona, who is studying accountancy at City University in the former British colony.

Her return to Hong Kong on Friday came as legislators and police conducted inquiries into assaults by her bodyguards on journalists working for The Sunday Times earlier this year. She was granted diplomatic immunity from prosecution by the Chinese foreign ministry after attacking Richard Jones, a photographer, on January 13, but members of her entourage were not covered by the privilege.

Two other journalists, Colin Galloway and Tim O’Rourke, were attacked by guards when they called at the Mugabe house on February 13.

Hong Kong’s Legislative Council is investigating the decision not to prosecute the bodyguards.

A separate police inquiry is under way into whether the bodyguards were working illegally while on tourist visas, a crime that can carry a prison sentence.

Sources in Zimbabwe believe the Mugabe family salted away assets and property in Asia while their country fell into poverty.

A power-sharing deal intended to end the misery in Zimbabwe is in deep trouble after Morgan Tsvangirai, the prime minister, said last week he could not govern alongside Mugabe while his supporters were detained and persecuted.

The deal had opened the way for Britain to grant Zimbabwe £62m in aid this year. Even China, an old ally of Mugabe, has called for reconciliation.

But the US State Department said Mugabe “hasn’t taken the concrete steps to show a commitment to democratic reform”. Source: Timesonline