Evicted by grasping grace

AS they forlornly packed their belongings into boxes John and Eva Matthews could not hide their bitterness.

They were leaving their beloved farmhouse for a tiny flat in the Zimbabwe capital, Harare ... knowing that the new owner of their farm is Grace Mugabe, the grasping wife of Zimbabwe's dictator.

The high-living Mrs Mugabe is four decades younger than her husband and already owns at least five other properties in the former British colony. Just moments after the Matthews' left Iron Mask, their beautiful 3,000 acre property, the so-called First Lady of Zimbabwe swept through the gates in a convoy of limousines and told stunned workers: "I'm taking over."

When one of the Matthews' 13 black workers asked: "What is going to happen to us?" Mrs Mugabe told him: "You can go and live by the river."

Mrs Matthews, 74, said yesterday: "I have resigned myself now to what will be. We had a lovely farm and a beautiful house, but that part of our life has closed.

"We can understand the young farmers of Zimbabwe putting up this fight, but we are just too old now.

"However, the future for Zimbabwe is very bleak. Inflation is running at 123 per cent and many people can't afford to eat any more."

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