Zimbabwe’s first lady sues newspaper

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The wife of the president of Zimbabwe is suing a newspaper for saying she was involved in illegal diamond deals. The paper based the story on one of the US diplomatic cables made public by Wikileaks. The case comes as Zimbabwe lurches into another political transition. Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with Andrew Meldrum, a journalist with globalpost.com, who’s covered Zimbabwe for years. Download MP3

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Lisa Mullins: The Wiki leaks of state departments cables, ripples all around the globe, the wife of Zimbabwe’s president Robert Mugabi, is embroiled in her own Wiki Leaks Controversy. One of the recently published cables alleges that Mrs. Mugabi was involved in illegal diamond deals. The Zimbabwe standard newspaper picked up the information and published a story on it. Now Mrs. Mugabi is suing the newspaper for $15 million. Andrew Meldum, is a journalist with GlobalPost.com. He has lived in Zimbabwe and covered it for a couple of decades. What is Mrs. Mugabi, alleged to have done.

Andrew Meldrum: Grace Mugabe is alleged to have been working with a couple of other top cabinet ministers within Mugabi’s government, and, to have gotten the diamonds in their own personal possession and to have sold them overseas for millions of dollars. And it’s, it’s pretty detailed allegation and very convincing.

Mullins: Very convincing in a way that other allegations have not been.

Meldrum: Oh no, there have been plenty of convincing allegations. Grace Mugabi, who is 40 years younger than her husband. She is known as Gucci Grace, because of her high spending shopping sprees in Italy, and other part of the world. She’s built two mansions, two personal mansions that are very visible, and our rural Zimbabwe, and she’s really known for high spending, high living a lavish, extravagant lifestyle. Gucci sunglasses, diamond encrusted, uh, glasses, things like that.

Mullins: So what’s her response to the allegations?

Meldrum: Oh well she said that she’s you know it’s completely false, and she finds it very hurtful. And what’s very interesting, is the standard newspaper tat printed it, which Mugabi, and Grace Mugabi regularly excoriate as being just you know, a white mouthpiece and a terrible newspaper. She now in the court case says, well this is an upstanding newspaper that many people believe, and therefore what they say about me could hurt my reputation.

Mullins: This case, Andy, is coming as Zimbabwe, is lurching into another political transition. Grace Mugabi’s husband Robert Mugabi, has been the leader of Zimbabwe since 1980. Two years ago he was forced into, as you know, this power sharing deal with the opposition. It appears that, that deal may be in trouble. What’s going on, give us the big picture, in terms of what’s going on in Zimbabwe, and how this affects the leadership itself, these charges.

Meldrum: You know that power sharing deal has been in trouble from it’s inception, two years ago. It’s been unwieldy, it’s been unworkable, and what it’s done, is it has left Robert Mugabi in power, and the opposition leader, Morgan Changerai, really on the sidelines. And Mugabi is now saying he’s going to take the country into elections in 2011. And Mugabi is saying, I don’t want to be bothered with the opposition, I want to rule, I want to run there. He’s going to be nominated for another five year term at the age of 86. And he’s saying I want to do it. He’s waving his fist, he’s saying, we don’t need the opposition with us. He’s also saying let’s get rid of all American and British companies, that are operating in Zimbabwe, that’s 400 companies. He’s, he’s really saying, I’m still a radical African leader, and I want to lead Zimbabwe.

Mullins: Alright, Thank you very much Journalist Andrew Meldrum, of GlobalPost.com. Thanks.

Meldrum: Thank You, Lisa.

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