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In 2003 the BBC reported that President Mugabe and his wife Grace were building a new Palace. Well, now it is ready for his supposed retirement in 2008 and pictures of the palace interiors are now travelling the Internet.
Grace's previous sumptuous residence, nicknamed "Graceland", was bought by Muammar Qaddafi of Libya.
(she said in interview that she had paid for it from her savings as a secretary prior to marrying Mugabe!)
President Mugabe could not have afforded this palace on his salary as President. He says that it has been a gift to him by ZANU PF for leading the country since independence.
However, one might wonder at his leadership qualities! Robert Guest of the Africa desk at the Economist says that no country since Germany's Weimar Republic has had such a "dramatic peacetime collapse".
And the house? (it's cost could have built 4 hospitals)
* Arab artists spent a year decorating the ceilings
* 3 acres of accommodation
* estimated 26 million USD to build
* 25 en-suite bathrooms
* neighbours in Borrowdale, Harare, have been told to sell up and leave to protect Mugabe's security
* China has donated the glazed blue tiles that cover the roof.
* Malaysia has donated the timber
* there are underground rooms reinforced with concrete
* it is 3 times the size of the State House.
* has 44 acres of landscaped grounds
* a Serbian construction company built it - Energoproject - to a Chinese design. Mugabe said in interview that the Serbian company donated their material and labour
* 50 crack riot response police guard it on a 24 hour watch
Meanwhile it is estimated that 80% of Zimbabweans are unemployed and a quarter of the population has left the country any way they can to seek survival for themselves and their families elsewhere.
Who is responsible for ending the suffering of Zimbabwe?
