Zimbabwe crisis

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's family has links to Singapore

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe with his daughter Bona and his wife Grace, after Ms Mugabe's graduation ceremony at the Raffles City Convention Centre in 2013.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe with his daughter Bona and his wife Grace, after Ms Mugabe's graduation ceremony at the Raffles City Convention Centre in 2013. ST FILE PHOTO

It may be more than 8,000km away, but Singapore is a familiar place to the Mugabe family.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is known to fly here frequently for medical treatment, while his only daughter Bona, 29, did her master's degree in management in Singapore in 2012 at a private university.

Meanwhile, his wife Grace, 52, has been known to drop thousands of dollars on shopping sprees during her travels here.

Mr Mugabe's visits to Singapore to seek treatment for his eye problems started around six years ago, and have become more frequent in recent years.

He first had cataract surgery in 2011, then returned to Singapore in 2014 for another procedure.

He was filmed arriving at Gleneagles Hospital with his wife in 2014. His then spokesman said he was on a "private visit" for a "routine eye check-up following a recent procedure on the same".

This year, the 93-year-old has visited at least twice: in March and in July. These were described as a "scheduled medical review" and "routine medical check-up".

Mr Mugabe's eye problems require him to avoid bright lights, an official spokesman said this May.

Back in 2011, WikiLeaks published a United States diplomatic cable that claimed he was suffering from prostate cancer, but it has never been officially confirmed.

Mr Mugabe's travels abroad for medical treatment have drawn criticism back home, where spiralling inflation has crippled the economy.

Last month, a spokesman for Zimbabwe's main opposition party MDC said: "Mugabe trashed our health delivery system. He and his family go outside of the country for treatment in Singapore after he allowed our public hospitals to collapse."

Mrs Mugabe - dubbed the First Lady of Shopping and "Gucci" Grace because of her lavish spending habits - has splurged in Singapore, too. In 2009, reports emerged that she went on a shopping spree around the region, buying £55,000 (S$98,600) worth of marble statues in Vietnam and a £8,700 handbag in Singapore.

British newspaper The Sun even claimed that a picture was taken of the couple in a first-class lounge at Changi Airport, surrounded by 15 trolleys of "electronic goods and exotic foods".

When daughter Bona came to Singapore for further studies, she was accompanied by her parents.

She did a course at the Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS)-University of Wales and, in 2013, graduated with a Master of Science in Management (Banking and Finance).

She had previously received an accounting degree in Hong Kong.

"My parents have always encouraged us to further our studies and aim for the top," Ms Mugabe, who has two siblings, was quoted as saying in an MDIS newsletter. "They have given me the foundation for success by believing in my abilities."

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Sunday Times on November 19, 2017, with the headline Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's family has links to Singapore. Subscribe