Van Hoogstraten to leave UK for Zimbabwe

HOOGSTRATEN

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By Nicholas Christian
29/02/04
PROPERTY tycoon Nicholas van Hoogstraten said Saturday he was "seriously considering" leaving Britain to live in Zimbabwe.

The reclusive multimillionaire - who was freed from prison in December after his manslaughter conviction was quashed - is already a major landowner in the troubled southern African state.

He claims to be a close friend of President Robert Mugabe.

In an interview, the 58-year-old said: "I am seriously considering the move [to Zimbabwe]. The only thing stopping me is the fact I have five young children here."

He said he had "lost interest" in business, and was "dabbling with all sorts of things".

Asked what he planned to do in the future, he replied: "Politics. I am already involved with politics... well, not in this country."

Van Hoogstraten - who has described his own politics as "to the right of Attila the Hun" - defended Mugabe from criticism that he has overseen human-rights abuses and suppressed freedom of speech.

The tycoon was jailed for the manslaughter of another landlord, Mohammed Raja, in 2002, but the conviction was quashed in December last year.

Recently, the British Sunday Times reported that van Hoogstraten was operating from an office in the outskirts of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital, as he strove to do a deal with the regime of President Robert Mugabe to keep his business and land ventures afloat in the pariah nation.

The tycoon, 58, is Zimbabwe’s largest private landowner and a vocal supporter and financial backer of Mugabe.

Despite his closeness to the regime, much of Hoogstraten’s 600,000 acres of land in Zimbabwe has been damaged by squatters trying to take advantage of Mugabe’s land confiscation policy, which is widely believed to have plunged the country into economic disaster.

Many of Hoogstraten’s employees in Zimbabwe are said to be “scared stiff” about how he will react when he sees the state of his property, given his vindictive reputation.

The tycoon, who is based in Sussex, built up his property in Africa in a buying spree in the 1990s. During his trial and imprisonment, much of his network of farms and businesses in Zimbabwe fell into ruin, accelerated by the country’s slide into chaos.

His property includes ostrich farms and mines, and he has 30,000 cattle. However, a rag-tag army of more than 5,000 “war veterans” now lives on Central Estates, one of Hoogstraten’s main ranches, and large stretches are no longer under his managers’ control.

Many of his cattle have been slaughtered or stolen, while the collapse of Zimbabwe’s railway system means he is unable to market coal from Wankie colliery, a mine in which he is the largest shareholder. Copro, Hoogstraten’s ostrich abattoir — capable of dispatching 15,000 birds a year — is running at only 50% capacity.

A sign outside his new base, a house on Golden Stairs Road, Harare, advertises a company called Savannah Wildlife. Employees contacted inside were reluctant to discuss Hoogstraten’s movements and telephone calls put through to him were met by silence.
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