The farm of former Zimbabwe First Lady, Grace Mugabe sits on gold deposits and it is a secret known to illegal miners who have now swooped on it.
Since she is no more in power, with her deposed husband, Robert Mugabe, she found that she could do nothing about it.
Grace was shocked on Thursday when she visited the farm to find the illegal miners, who didn’t come to tend her farm, but to explore for gold ore.
Zimbabwean newspaper Newsday reported that Grace found them uprooting lemon trees, digging shafts and loading gold ore into lorries.
After unsuccessfully confronting them on Thursday, Mrs Mugabe reported the matter to the police.
According to Newsday, the gold rich farm is in Mazowe, where she had forcefully evicted villagers in 2015 – while her husband was still in power. She got the title for the land in 2016.
Mrs Mugabe said in a statement to the police obtained by the New Zimbabwe website that she was touring the farm when she was “shocked to find approximately 400 men illegally panning for gold”.
When she confronted them at the farm, some 40km (25 miles) north of Harare, she said they “started to shout obscenities at me and continued with their unlawful activities”.
Newsday reports that one worker shouted at her: “You no longer have any power to remove us. This is the new dispensation, we do what we want”.
“You don’t tell us to leave, we are just workers. Go and tell that to those who employed us,” one of the panners shouted, as Grace protested that this was her private property.
Last year Mrs Mugabe was widely reported to be preparing to replace her ageing husband as president of Zimbabwe.
But the rumours were not welcomed by parts of the ruling party and Mugabe was ousted from office in November, to be replaced by his long-time ally Emmerson Mnangagwa.
BBC/NewsDay
