Wherever Mugabe spends his retirement, he won’t be short of a penny, says a s h smyth |
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When recent calculations revealed that Zimbabwe's hyperinflation had shot past the 2,000 per cent mark, Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party blocked the release of the doomsday statistic.
Ordinary Zimbabweans, however, will hardly have failed to notice that despite the country's economic meltdown, Mugabe's cronies have all managed to stay plenty rich.
In fact, many of the Zanu-PF elite have become richer, often through the despicable smoke-and-mirrors tactic of filtering their American dollar salaries through the two tiers of the domestic economy - the 'official' rate of exchange vs the real rate - thereby profiting from the very economic collapse they have brought about.
But however the Zanu-PF officials have enriched themselves, one thing is certain: they aren't storing their nest-eggs in Zimbabwe. Robert I Rotberg at Harvard's
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| Many of the Zanu-PF elite have got richer still by filtering their US dollar salaries through the two tiers of the domestic economy |
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Kennedy School of Government says that - rather embarrassingly - "much of Mugabe's own wealth is stashed in the British Virgin Islands and the Isle of Man." Rotberg also claims Mugabe owns several large properties in mainland Britain. Others have suggested Mugabe's friendly relationship with President Hu Jintao makes China (Macau, perhaps) a possible repository for some of his personal wealth.
So where should we expect to see Mugabe & co setting up in retirement, if and when Zimbabwe experiences the long-awaited second coming of democracy? The French Riviera is a traditional choice among African despots, with perhaps an apartment or two in Paris to facilitate trips to private clinics. This is a reflection on French foreign policies over the years: Congo's Mobutu Sese Seko ended his days in Morocco (via Togo), but enjoyed frequent personal meetings with President Chirac during his exile.
Many others simply shifted to a neighbouring country (Charles Taylor, Hastings Banda); but Mugabe has so overwhelmingly blotted his copy-book that 
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