Grace Mugabe sues paper over diamond looting story

By Lance Guma
16 December 2010

Grace Mugabe launched a damage limitation exercise this week, by suing the weekly Zimbabwe Standard newspaper for publishing a story quoting WikiLeaks documents, exposing how she benefited from illegal diamond deals.

The whistle blowing WikiLeaks website has been releasing thousands of leaked US diplomatic cables from around the world. In one 2008 cable, sent by former US Ambassador to Zimbabwe James McGee, he reported how Grace had reaped ‘tremendous profits’ from illegal diamond deals.

McGee says in his report; "High-ranking Zimbabwean government officials and well-connected elites are generating millions of dollars in personal income by hiring teams of diggers to hand-extract diamonds."

McGee quotes African Consolidated Resources CEO Andrew Cranswick, who told him there was a small group of high-ranking officials “extracting tremendous diamond profits from Chiadzwa.” Cranswick, whose claim in Chiadzwa was seized by the military, went on to name Grace, central bank Governor Gideon Gono, Vice President Joyce Mujuru and General Constantine Chiwenga, as beneficiaries.

Stung by the exposures, Mugabe’s wife is now claiming US$15 million in damages from the paper. Summons filed by her lawyer, George Chikumbirike, claim “the imputation of such conduct on a person of such high standing, the mother of the nation, is to lower the respect with which is held by all right thinking persons, to a point of disappearance.”

Chikumbirike goes further to say his client ‘is of high standing in Zimbabwe’ and the wife of the President. He argues that the article gave the impression Grace Mugabe “used her position as the First Lady to access diamonds clandestinely, enriching herself in circumstances in which the country was facing serious foreign currency shortages."

Claims by the legal team that Grace ‘is well regarded internationally’ were immediately ridiculed by ordinary Zimbabweans. They have long nicknamed her ‘DisGrace’ over her lavish and extravagant lifestyle, dominated by endless shopping trips to the Far East and Asia. Instead of First Lady she is usually referred to as ‘The First Shopper’. She also showed her violent streak in January 2009 when she assaulted a Sunday Times photographer, while on a visit to Hong Kong.
According to legal experts Grace Mugabe’s lawsuit however is not likely to be a solid one and is thought to be more of a damage limitation exercise, since her silence on the accusations would have amounted to a form of consent. The Standard newspaper merely reported what was contained in leaked diplomatic cables sent from the US embassy in Harare. Many other papers have done the same. They didn’t originate the story.

The lawsuit is also being viewed as part of ongoing harassment of the newspaper business run by publisher Trevor Ncube. In June, Mines Minister Obert Mpofu sued the Standard paper for more than US$25 million, claiming defamation, after they published an article accusing him of corruptly acquiring properties. The March article was headlined ‘Obert Mpofu Property-Buying Spree Raises Eyebrows. ”

Only last month Nqobani Ndlovu, a journalist with the same paper, spent 10 days in custody after police arrested and charged him with ‘criminal defamation’ over a story he wrote. Ndlovu had reported how the police had frozen internal promotions this year to accommodate war vets. He alleged the war vets are being recruited to direct operations during next year’s anticipated elections.

Meanwhile Wilf Mbanga, who publishes the Zimbabwean newspaper, has come out in support of the Standard, saying they have done nothing wrong. He said the WikiLeaks revelations were available all over the world and he wondered if Grace would be suing everyone. He accused members of the regime of using lawsuits to ‘bankrupt us (as publishers). Once you are sued you then have to go to your lawyers and its costs money to defend yourself,’ Mbanga said.