ZIMBABWE - HARARE — Exiled Zimbabwean businessman and a former ZANU PF zealot James Chafungamoyo Makamba ravished the First Lady Grace Mugabe in Jane Mutasa’s Greystone Park house in Harare as gun-toting security details stood guard outside, completely unaware of what was going on inside the mansion.

 

Mutasa’s former maid has finally unravelled the mystery surrounding the love trysts that caused the former disc jockey untold suffering in Mugabe’s jail and his eventual flight to freedom.

 

 

Given Robert Mugabe’s security apparatus, it is almost impossible to meet the First Lady, let alone sleep with her without the knowledge of the dreaded spy agency, the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).

 

 

 

 

Yet, Makamba, for quite some time, evaded the CIO net and bedded the energetic and sex-starved Grace.

 

The First Lady, now 43, is half the age of the Zimbabwean dictator who turned 85 last month. Makamba is 57.

Chipo (not her real name), worked for Mutasa as a housemaid until 2007 when she left for Johannesburg, South Africa, where she is now working.  Chipo saw the drama unfold before her and was rewarded handsomely for keeping her mouth shut.

Here is how it sometimes happened: Makamba would be dropped off at Mutasa’s residence and would go straight into one of the bedrooms at the far end of the house. He would lie in there waiting in anticipation for the First Lady, sometimes for more than two hours.

Grace would arrive usually clutching files of investment documents purportedly for a meeting with Mutasa.

 

She would briefly sit in the lounge with Mutasa pretending to be discussing some business deals before joining Makamba for a wild session of sex.

 

Mutasa would remain in her bedroom while the two exchanged “passionate bedroom notes” only to emerge later escorting a flushed Grace, who would still be holding her unopened files, to her waiting vehicle.

 Makamba, in the meantime, would remain in their love nest for a while before being driven away by Mutasa.

 

“Sometimes his driver would come for him,” said Chipo. “They varied their modus operandi to avoid detection.”

“The problem was that they got carried away,” said Chipo in Johannesburg this week. “I remember, one day, it was Grace’s birthday.

 

Makamba bought her flowers and some gifts which were delivered to Mutasa’s home.

 

Grace collected them later that day.” Sometimes, Mutasa would deliver the gifts from smitten Makamba to the State House.

The lovebirds met frequently also in Mazowe, where Grace seized a farm next to Makamba’s and at some suspiciously private places.

The final straw was when Makamba visited Grace in a Johannesburg hotel for a long period one night in 2003.

 

Her bodyguard reported the matter and a livid Mugabe ordered Makamba’s immediate arrest.

Makamba spent several months in remand prison on charges of externalising foreign currency. He pleaded guilty to charges of selling US$130 000 to Telecel Zimbabwe, a company he owns.

 

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However, during that period almost all foreign currency transactions in Zimbabwe took place on the black market.

 

State companies, because of the shortage of foreign currency in Zimbabwe, resorted to the black market and even Grace had black market foreign currency bought for her by Gideon Gono, now the Reserve Bank governor.

Unlike Makamba, executives of parastatals and many others who sold or bought money on the black market, were not prosecuted.

Lower courts twice granted Makamba bail but the judgments were overruled by higher courts. He was later released on bail by the High Court and fled to the United Kingdom where he owns a home.

Mutasa, who is a Telecel Zimbabwe board member, was convicted for also selling up to US$10 000 to the mobile operator. She escaped with a fine.

 For keeping mum, Chipo is now the proud owner of a Waterfalls house in Harare. “I can’t go to Harare now,” said Chipo.  “I will go there when the dust settles.”

 

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JOKE OF THE DAY - A man in Zim wrote to his son in the UK:

 

Condition is critical. Please send money. Suicide contemplated.

The son replied:
Dad, condition abroad more critical. Suicide approved!".

 

 

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