Robert Mugabe's Hong Kong apartment

By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai

Mr Mugabe, 84, and his wife Grace, 44, whose country is mired with poverty, hunger and hyper-inflation, also have a network of financial interests throughout the Far East, according to a Sunday newspaper.

They have bought a luxury apartment in Hong Kong's Tai Po district through a middleman, the paper claimed.

It said that they did so through a holding company called Cross Global, which purchased House Number Three in a new property development called JC Castle.

The development is a walled and gated complex complete with gardens, a clubhouse and a swimming pool. Situated in the northern reaches of Hong Kong, the development is targeted at affluent Hong Kong residents who are seeking to escape the smog of downtown.

The complex was built by Albert Yeung, one of the island's most colourful tycoons, who has been repeatedly accused of having links to both organised crime and the Chinese Communist Party but has never been convicted and denies any wrongdoing.

Both of Mrs Mugabe's children have been educated in Asia. Her son Russell, by her first husband, studied in Bangkok while Bona, her daughter with Mr Mugabe, is currently at Hong Kong university, despite a public outcry.
The Mugabes visited Hong Kong last year, taking up two floors of the Shangri-La hotel in Kowloon and running up a bill of tens of thousands of pounds, all of which was paid in cash. According to reports in the Zimbabwean media, $92,000 (£64,000) was withdrawn from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the country's central bank, before the trip.
Grace Mugabe is also mulling over a multi-million pound diamond venture on the Chinese mainland, sending diamonds to be cut in Qingdao. In addition to the latest apartments, the Mugabes are thought to have several more properties throughout South East Asia and close links not only with the Chinese government, but also with the former Malaysian prime minister, Mahathir bin Mohamad.