Thieves have invaded the home of Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe and made away with at least 119 laptops and seven desktop computers.
Zimbabwe Newsday newspaper reported that the stolen computers were kept in locked containers at the Polo Grounds adjacent to Zimbabwe House.
The theft was discovered during the week when the Mugabes were moving their belongings from Zimbabwe House to their private residence in Borrowdale.
“They broke into three containers using a bolt cutter. The containers had personal belongings of the (former) First Family. When Mugabe resigned after the military intervention, the former First Family was asked to remove their belongings and because of limited time, some of the items were left in containers at Polo Grounds next to the presidential helipad,” an unnamed source was quoted as saying.
The reportedly stolen equipment was going to be donated to some schools in the country.
The ex-president’s wife Grace has since made a police report under the case no CR110/04/18 and a detective Nyabonde was in charge of the investigation.
The theft comes just a few days after a senior government official said that the former first lady lied about illegal gold miners stealing laptops and illegally mining gold in one of her properties.
The state-owned Herald newspaper had reported that Home Affairs minister Obert Mpofu dismissed the ex-first lady ’s claims, adding that the break-in at the first family orphanage school was an inside job.
Mpofu also said that there was an ongoing court dispute between the former first family and three mining syndicates.
He said the syndicate had approached the high court and were issued a provisional order barring police and Gushungo holdings from interfering with their mining activities under case no HC293/18.
Mpofu also said that the security personnel at the former first family farms had been decreased to a bare minimum following their removal from power last year.
He said the decrease in security personnel was in line with constitutional provisions.
