'Mugabe is harbouring thieves,' says Muchinguri

The Zanu-PF Women's League boss and gender minister Oppah Muchinguri has claimed President Robert Mugabe is "nursing" thieves who are stealing mines and farms.

She was speaking at the Amai Mugabe Children's Home in Mazowe, Mashonaland Central, where thousands of youths had gathered to endorse the resolution to make the president's wife, Grace, the new leader of the league at the party's December congress.

Grace was recently endorsed by the Women's League at the same venue and is set to replace Muchinguri who is believed to be eyeing a higher post in the party.

"The president (Mugabe) is ordering that the youths be given mines, diamonds and farms yet they are giving those things to their own children," she said.

"The thieves that President Mugabe has nursed have stolen mines and farms and are enjoying themselves because they are now well-fed. They want the President to go so that they can enjoy their loot," she added.

Mugabe has long been accused of working with corrupt lieutenants and has repeatedly acknowledged that his juniors were dishonest.

Obert Mpofu, the former mines minister who was moved to the transport portfolio when a new cabinet was announced late last year, has been appearing in court as a witness in a fraud case.

One of the accused in the ongoing trial has counter-accused Mpofu of demanding a $10m bribe from him.

Mpofu is alleged to have made millions during his tenure as the minister, buying off a troubled bank and numerous properties across the country.

Despite the controversy that surrounded Mpofu during his time with the ministry, Mugabe retained him.

Last year, an attempt by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) to investigate three cabinet ministers - Mpofu, Saviour Kasukuwere and Nicholas Goche - went awry when officials from the anti-graft unit were hauled before the courts instead.

Kasukuwere and Goche were retained in cabinet as well.

Mugabe has repeatedly called on government ministers and senior officials, who grabbed multiple farms during the fast-track land redistribution that started in 2000, to hand over extra farmland. His calls have fallen on deaf ears.

The president recently said some legislators and ministers were hiding behind his name to extort money from potential investors.

His wife has not escaped the corruption rap, with some critics saying she is using her position to grab farms.

On Thursday, she accused the deputy minister of justice, Fortune Chasi, of "terrorising" her over her alleged land grabs in Mazowe during the youth endorsement ceremony.

She alleged that Chasi, the local MP, was claiming that Grace and her husband were bent on "colonising" the whole of Mazowe through farm seizures.

She added that he had sent youths to illegally mine in a conservancy she had acquired and was funding a court application against her occupation of the children's home as a way of frustrating her.

"In our midst, there are some who are sending people to torment the president's wife to leave this place. At first, 300 youths came and started digging up this place and after two weeks, the number swelled to 1,000," she alleged.

Grace Mugabe is reportedly responsible for the eviction of hundreds of farm labourers who were living on a new property seized in Mazowe, where her family also owns a dairy farm.

It remains to be seen what fate Chasi will meet following Grace Mugabe's allegations.