Grace Hoodwinked

President Robert Mugabe's family could lose their luxurious $7-million mansion in Hong Kong, as the shadowy Chinese businessman whom they fronted to purchase the house for them four years ago is refusing to hand over the title deeds.

Highly placed government insiders say businessman Ping Sung Hsieh reportedly sweet- talked First Lady Grace Mugabe into buying the house in his name after convincing her that the media would "blow apart" the issue if the house was put in the First Family's name.

But Mugabe and Hsieh, who claims to be a close business associate of the Mugabes, have since fallen out over a botched trucks deal in which Grace is claiming that the businessman, now living in neighbouring SA, stole $1-million from her.

Hsieh, through his lawyer Mannie Witz, confirmed early this year to the Sunday Times that he had business dealings with the Mugabes and claimed they had fallen out after "some deals went sour".

Grace, through her aide, top police officer Olga Bungu, claimed that they sent the money to Hsieh in SA to buy the trucks but he never delivered them, and efforts to have the controversial businessman extradited failed in the South African courts three weeks ago.

The Sunday Times has been told that Grace and Hsieh were "strong" business partners and the First Lady ended up trusting him, resulting in the Hong Kong house deal.

Grace and her daughter Bona lived in the house in an exclusive complex when both were studying at a Chinese university. Grace is now back in Harare while Bona is pursuing further studies in Singapore.

The house deal is said to have caused fissures within the First Family, as some of the deals between Grace and Hsieh were said to have been done without Mugabe's knowledge.

Insiders told the Sunday Times that Grace was also involved in a mining joint venture with Hsieh in the Midlands province which her husband was not aware of.

Said an insider: "Grace is desperate to have Hsieh arrested in Zimbabwe as she has been fleeced on several occasions by the guy she trusted so much. The $1-million is not the real reason why she wanted Hsieh extradited - it is the Hong Kong house deal which has agitated her. She was naive enough to allow a foreigner to get hold of title deeds and now she has no control.

"Hsieh is now telling her to go to hell. She has no evidence that the house belongs to her because it's in Hsieh's name. When Mugabe heard about it he was very angry, he could not believe that the wife could enter in such a deal. That is why the system in Zimbabwe tried to use security structures in SA to get Hsieh arrested but they failed.

"Even President Jacob Zuma was made aware of the issue and made inquiries with Zimbabwean authorities to find out what was happening. Grace has been advised to keep it low and quit chasing Hsieh because it will expose her and embarrass the old man (Mugabe). But she is still hoping to get the Chinese businessman.

"Grace could also grab his share-holding in the gold mine in the Midlands to compensate herself," said the insider.

Witz could neither confirm nor deny the Hong Kong mansion deal but said: "What I know is that the issue was big news in the newspapers two years ago but I am not aware of the latest developments."

He could not confirm if it was one of the business deals "that went sour" between the two.

So desperate was Grace to have Hsieh arrested that police in Harare arrested four drivers sent by him to deliver second-hand trucks to her.

The four - Cassimjee Bilal, 28, Henry Hadebe, 57, Samuel Risimati Baloyi, 40 and Sidney Masilo, 40 - have since disappeared and warrants for their arrest were issued after they failed to appear in court recently.