THE late former president Robert Mugabe’s business empire has crumpled amid revelations that Gushungo Dairy Estate is being leased to a company linked to a millionaire businessman.

A once thriving chicken and pig enterprise at the former Zimbabwe’s strongman Zvimba home, has also collapsed.

Details obtained this week indicate that Mugabe’s widow, Grace, is struggling to run the vast estate resulting in the business nosediving to an estimated 20% capacity utilisation.

Mugabe — who ruled Zimbabwe with an iron fist for 37 years but was removed via a military assisted takeover in November 2017 — left a huge business portfolio mainly in farming with 21 farms, according to a government commissioned land audit.

This is in stark contrast with the one-man-one-farm land policy his administration touted while Mugabe and his family turned into notorious land barons.

In 2015, Grace evicted 80 families who settled at part of the Gushungo Dairy Estate, but ever since the death of her husband things have turned for the worse.

At the core of the late shrewd politicians’ estate is Gushungo Holdings, incorporating Gushungo Dairy Estate, Gushungo Dairy Parlour and Alpha Omega — all located in the 1 200 hectare Foyle Farm in Mazowe — 40km north of Harare.

-Zimbabwe Independent