The News

Zimbabwe Group Criticizes Evictions Linked to First Lady 

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe (L) and his wife Grace at a rally at Chubuku stadium in Chitungwiza town, about 35 kilometers south of Harare, Zimbabwe, July 16, 2013. Zimbabwe goes to the polls on July 31.

HARARE – Zimbabwe’s human rights commission is criticizing the eviction of families from a farm linked to President Robert Mugabe’s wife, calling it “unlawful and inhuman.”

The statutory body is tasked with investigating human rights abuses. Its report says police pulled down the homes of more than 100 families.


Many of the families have been at the farm since 2000 when they evicted the former owner at the inception of Zimbabwe’s often violent and racially charged land reforms, their lawyers said.

The commission did not link the first lady, Grace Mugabe, to the police action. But in court papers filed in April in a case against two of the farm dwellers, state prosecutors accused them of having illegally entered and refusing to leave the farm owned by the Mugabes.