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ZIMBABWE - According to a leaked US diplomatic cable published this week, the bulk of Mugabe’s assets were at the time believed to be in the form of real estate.
Together with his wife Grace, the Zimbabwean leader was said to own at least six residences in the country, including a multi-story mansion in Harare’s posh Borrowdale suburb.
The couple also own several farms that they grabbed from former white farmers under a violent land “reform” programme that the despotic leader says was necessary to correct the injustices by former colonial masters.
“The full extent of Mugabe’s assets are unknown, but are rumoured to exceed $1 billion in value, the majority of which are likely invested outside Zimbabwe,” said the cable written by the US embassy in Harare in August 2001 and made public by whistleblower website WikiLeaks this week.
Media reports have linked the dictator to a looting spree over the past few years during which Mugabe and his inner circle allegedly seized commercial farmland equivalent to more than half of Zimbabwe.
The US diplomatic cable acknowledged that it was difficult to ascertain the full extent of Mugabe’s overseas assets although these were rumoured to include “everything from secret accounts in Switzerland, the Channel Islands and the Bahamas to castles in Scotland”
Mugabe has insisted that he has no foreign assets or bank accounts, challenging the West to seize any that they find under his name.
His associates, including Defence Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa and businessmen John Bredenkamp and Billy Rautenbauch, are said to have amassed significant wealth, mainly acquired during Zimbabwe’s controversial involvement in the five-year-old Democratic Republic of Congo civil war.
Although the embassy had no firm confirmation of the assets held by the three, it said they were major beneficiaries of military contracts and mining concessions. “They are presumed to have channelled some of that wealth to Mugabe,” the cable said.
Mnangagwa was at the time chairman of First National Bank of Congo while Bredenkamp’s company, Tremalt, was reported to have a 20 percent stake in the DRC mining parastatal Gecamines, which granted substantial mining concessions to Zimbabwean companies.
Last week, another report said Mugabe is worth US$3 billion rich and he is Africa’s eighth richest man.
A newly published book by Zimbabwean academic and human rights activist Elliot Pfebve has revealed.
In the book entitled Zimbabwe My Home My frustration, Articles of Defiance, Pfebve states that the Zimbabwean president is as rich as Mohamed Fayed owner of London Harrods departmental stores.
The richest man in Africa is President of Equitorial Guinea Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasongo (est US$65 Billion) followed by Maummar al-Gaddafi (US$56 Billion), Chairman of Globalcom Dr Mike Adenuga is at US$27 Billion.
In the list, at number five is Egyptian businessman Onsi Sawiris at US$20 Billion, followed by Ethiopian businessman Mohamed Al Amoudi at US$9 Billion. At number six is Nigerian Aliko Dangote at US$4 Billion followed by Zimbabwean businessman Strive Masiyiwa at US$3.5 Billion.
President Mugabe then comes after Masiyiwa at US$3 Billion and ranks together with London Harrods guru Fayed, the father of Dodi Fayed who died alongside with the Princess of Wales, Diana in an French tunnel.
Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni is at number 12 at US$1.7 Billion. At number 18 is South African businessman Patrice Motsepe at US$1.2 Billion, while ANC stalwart now businessman Cyril Ramaphosa is at number 20 at US$600 million.
Pfebve rightly argues that the rich African list is disturbing as Africa is home to millions of poverty-stricken families.
“The rich list is disturbing as it may provoke debate as how a president of a poor country can end up being on the rich list without any investment portfolios,” writes Pfebve.
“That Robert Mugabe the President of Zimbabwe is US$3 Billion mega rich in a ountry which entirely depends on food aid baffles everybody. The next question is where are these billions and where did they come from. We can understand strive Masiyiwa being a billionaire because he is an entrepreneur ….but what of Robert Mugabe president of a self-inflicted poverty-stricken country?”
The book Zimbabwe My home My frustration: Articles of defiance provides the first vivid and horrying memoirs by Pfebve himself who has been at the frontline of the struggle for the rule of law in Zimbabwe. He escaped several assassination attempts on his life culminating in the murder of his brother Mathew Pfebve at the hands of Robert Mugabe regime. The book is a must-read and is available on Amazon.
The Zimdiaspora will from next week start serialising Pfebve’s new book Zimbabwe My home, my frustration: Articles of defiance.
Pfebve is a Chartered IT Professional and holds an MBA, MSc and a PGCE from Leicester and Greenwich universities in the United Kingdom. He also holds an EDP and a postgraduate in Sustainable Development with Climate Change from Kalstard University, Sweden.
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