A British newspaper this week reported that First Lady Grace Mugabe shipped 35 elephants to China to pay for military uniforms for the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Chinese media has denied the report saying this is sheer nonsense with an ulterior motive.
The Times did not state why Grace was paying for the uniforms apart from stating that Mugabe had close relations with DRC President Joseph Kabila and his late father.
Below are the two stories, one from The Times and the other from China Daily
The Times- GRACE Mugabe has sent a menagerie of safari animals to a Chinese wildlife park to pay for military uniforms for the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The 51-year-old wife of the Zimbabwean leader is believed to have sent 35 elephant calves, eight lions, a dozen hyenas and a giraffe to settle a debt for boots and uniforms bought for the Congolese military, a conservationist with intimate knowledge of the deal told The Times.
Mugabe, 92, has had close ties with President Kabila of the DRC, 45, and his late father, Laurent, since 1997, when Zimbabwe sent troops there to help to squash a rebellion supported by Rwanda, Uganda and Burundi.
There are fears that the elephants could be used to start an ivory-farming operation in China.
They were captured at the Hwange National Park and flown out of the country in a Russian-registered Boeing 747 belonging to AirBridge Cargo.
The plane stopped in Moscow en route to Shanghai and the animals were finally released at the Chimelong safari park in Guangzhou.
Zimbabwean wildlife officials have defended the capture of the elephants, saying that it would ease pressure on the “overburdened” parks and reduce conflict with local communities. But a wildlife expert in Zimbabwe said that the forced separation of the young elephants from their herds was “a mad act of cruelty”.
Nick Lynch, who has been monitoring the transaction since 2014, said that the deal involved “rogue elements” within the Chinese expat community — and that the Chinese government was taking covert steps to eradicate the illegal wildlife trade.
“The Chinese expat community in Zimbabwe must now be carefully scrutinised as well and all those found to be acting illegally or in a manner that threatens China’s best interests in Africa should be dealt with accordingly,” he added.
The two main opposition groups in Zimbabwe, the Movement for Democratic Change, headed by Morgan Tsvangirai, and the Zimbabwe People First Party, led by Joice Mujuru, the former deputy president, have criticised the “translocation of our elephants to strange environments”.
Mugabe is on a multimillion-pound, month-long holiday in Singapore with his family and entourage — despite a national cash crisis that has resulted in civil servants not being paid their salaries this month.
The Mugabes usually go shopping in Singapore while the president has a medical check-up. On previous trips there he has had his prostate examined, owing to cancer concerns.
Grace Mugabe has made no secret of her intention to succeed her husband. The family is due back in Harare at the end of January.
China Daily-China rebutted a recent report that Zimbabwe had sent wild animals, including 35 elephant calves, to China to pay for a military debt, saying it is “sheer nonsense with an ulterior motive”.
The Times newspaper in London reported on Monday that Grace Mugabe, wife of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, had sent safari animals to a Chinese wildlife park to pay for military uniforms for the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“I want to emphasize that this is a normal commercial activity, which is in line with relevant international conventions and laws in both countries” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told a daily news conference on Thursday.
Hua said that wildlife parks in Shanghai, Beijing and Hangzhou recently imported a total of 35 African elephants from Zimbabwe. Payments have been received by Zimbabwean authorities, and the money will be used for the African country’s wildlife protection, Hua said.
“It is an international practice for zoos to import foreign safari animals. The technical conditions of Chinese animal parks have met international demands and the parks can take care of the African elephants,” she added.
An anonymous Chinese staff member directly involved in the transaction told China Radio International that “all the payments have been brought into the accounts of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority and national parks”.
He also said Zimbabwe’s environmental protection minister inspected the wildlife parks in Shanghai and Hangzhou in January and assessed the conditions of elephants that had been import-ed earlier to Guangzhou.
Li Wentao, an expert on African studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said the report unfairly speculated about normal China-Zimbabwe trade ties when Zimbabwe is suffering economic difficulties. “The two countries are good partners with close cooperation, and China has been providing economic assistance to the African country. However, this is no reason to make such speculation,” he said.
He Wenping, a researcher at the Institute of West-Asian and African Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the misleading report shows the Western media’s longtime prejudice against China-Africa cooperation.
“Anyone with commonsense will know such a report is ridiculous. Every country could have ups and downs, and China and African countries have a consensus on overcoming difficulties together,” she said.
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