Is Gaddafi coming to Zimbabwe?

The Standard, Monday, 07 March 2011
By KHOLWANI NYATHI
AS President Robert Mugabe’s staunch ally Muammar Gaddafi battles to violently halt revolt against his four decade long reign, questions are being asked if the Libyan leader would become the second fallen dictator to seek refuge in Zimbabwe.


Former Ethiopian strongman Mengistu Haile Mariam, who was slapped with the death penalty in his own country for slaughtering hundreds of people, lives like a king at a farm in Norton and in Harare’s leafy Gunhill suburb.

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week said they were open to the idea of Gaddafi fleeing to Zimbabwe, in the first indication that such an option could be on the table.

“I was almost rendered speechless by the idea of him and Mu-gabe coming together,” Clinton told journalists in Geneva.

“And if the violence could be ended by his leaving, that might be a good thing.”

The speculation might not be far-fetched following claims — although dismissed by Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa — that Zimbabwe has given Gaddafi military support in the war against his own people.

Besides, the Gaddafi family is known to already have vast business interests in Zimbabwe.

In August last year, one of Gaddafi’s sons, Saadi, who is a former professional footballer, was in the country ostensibly to scout for business opportunities.

He was taken to the Tokwe-Mukosi Dam in Masvingo where he reportedly promised to make a big investment to ensure that the construction of the dam is finally completed.

Water Resources Development and Management minister Samuel Sipepa Nkomo yesterday said they had not made a follow up on the promise.

“Basically it was not our initiative,” Nkomo said. “We had gone to the dam as the parent ministry and Gaddafi’s son was brought by (Tourism minister) Walter Mzembi. I don’t know what Mzembi will do now considering developments in Libya.”

Saadi was also taken to Victoria Falls and according to Mzembi, expressed interest in investing in various sectors of the economy. He ended his trip by paying a courtesy call on Mugabe.

Several efforts to reach Mzembi for a comment on the matter were unsuccessful.

Celebrities and institutions throughout the world are falling over each other to return money they got from the Gaddafi regime because of the atrocities.

But Zimbabwe has remained tightlipped on the Libyan issue even when its neighbours join the rest of the world in condemning the regime’s excesses.
Although a deal between Mu-gabe and Gaddafi to bring fuel to Zimbabwe collapsed, observers say it is possible that one of Africa’s longest rulers has other interests in the country.

A court case, in August last year, where a former ZBC employee was accused of defrauding the Libyan government of US$4 million revealed that the Gaddafis might have invested in real estate in the country.

Stanley Masendo was accused of siphoning the money from a company known as Crieff Investments, which later changed to Aldawlia Investments.

The company bought 12 haulage trucks and properties, which included 10 flats in Harare, which were left under Masendo’s management.

In 2002 there were also reports that President Mugabe’s wife Grace had sold her mansion in Borrowdale to Gaddafi.

The construction of the mansion known as Gracelands had caused controversy amid allegations that it was built using funds meant for poor civil servants.