Profile: Sheltered by R.G. Mugabe's cronyism, nepotism, corruption and other "activities of the dark," Leo Mugabe, self proclaimed prophet, spews nonsense.
Comrade Mugabe leans forward, eyes popping behind glinting spectacles. To him it's obvious: The global financial meltdown, coming after endless Western ridicule of Zimbabwe's economy, is no coincidence.
It's an act of God.
"The world is tumbling, but ours is going on. Doesn't that surprise you?" he says, with a meaningful glance. "What is happening in Wall Street - what relationship does it have with this little country called Zimbabwe? It's divine intervention. Absolutely."
This Mugabe is not the man who has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years. It is his nephew, Leo Mugabe: businessman, farmer, former lawmaker, channel surfer of religious programs and, like his uncle, target of international sanctions.
It's an act of God.
"The world is tumbling, but ours is going on. Doesn't that surprise you?" he says, with a meaningful glance. "What is happening in Wall Street - what relationship does it have with this little country called Zimbabwe? It's divine intervention. Absolutely."
This Mugabe is not the man who has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years. It is his nephew, Leo Mugabe: businessman, farmer, former lawmaker, channel surfer of religious programs and, like his uncle, target of international sanctions.
Leo Mugabe is the son of President Robert G. Mugabe's sister Sabina and is described as the president's favorite nephew. He runs an engineering company called Integrated Contracting Engineers, which is powerful by virtue of his connections and has won several big government infrastructure projects.
The 51-year-old sees Zimbabwe almost as a chosen country. Any other would have crumbled with just half Zimbabwe's inflation, yet it still somehow struggles along, he says.
"I know how to communicate with God"
Expansive and relaxed, he offers a fervid defense of the government, reflecting the view of his uncle's ZANU-PF party that the entire crisis boils down to the West's determination to use sanctions to oust a plucky regime that thwarted colonial exploitation on the continent. "God has answered. But he has not finished answering them for the illegal sanctions. I believe you'll see more floods, cyclones, fires and economic woes, just by us kneeling down and asking God to rescue us from them."
Leo Mugabe's name was added to the list of individuals facing U.S. sanctions early this year. He also faces European Union sanctions as director of Zimbabwe's state-owned arms-dealing company, Zimbabwe Defense Industries. The sanctions freeze assets in Europe and the United States, ban travel in those places and bar U.S. firms from doing business with him and Europeans from trading with the arms company.
A Roman Catholic, he attends Mass regularly and claims to be able to tell which TV preachers are crooks and which ones are pure, because, he says: "I know how to communicate with God."
His wife, Veronica, sued him for divorce this year, accusing him of womanizing. The divorce writ led to a flurry of scandal in the news media. Demanding a half-share in his property, she asserted that he owned three farms - a claim he denied.
Leo Mugabe was arrested and briefly jailed in 2005, accused of smuggling flour into Mozambique; the case was dropped for lack of evidence. He used to serve as chairman of the national soccer governing body, the Zimbabwe Football Association, until late 2002, when there was a vote of no confidence in his leadership over an accusation of misappropriation of a $61,000 grant, a charge he also denied.
ZANU-PF has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, but disputed elections this year led to a power-sharing deal with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, a deal now in doubt with the parties quarreling over Cabinet posts.
Leo Mugabe said the regime's willingness to give the posts to the opposition was a magnanimous gesture based on the interests of the country but warned that if opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai failed to take the deal soon, he'd end up with nothing. "We are an economy under siege, and obviously we are experiencing challenges which have resulted in this political settlement so we can create a political environment conducive to better economic performance, because all political parties have their country at heart," he said.
But he said the deal was not a power transfer. "We share what we have. It comes from he who holds it. He's sharing."
Optimism is rare in Zimbabwe these days, but Leo Mugabe exudes it: It will rain. There will be a good harvest. "And our life will begin to be the way it should be. Don't forget - God is here in Zimbabwe now."
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