Modest inventory greeted with scepticism in Zimbabwe, where dictator was thought to have amassed fortune over 40 years

This article is more than 9 months old

This article is more than 9 months old

Robert Mugabe left $10m (£7.7m) in the bank, some small plots of land and a handful of modest properties, a list of his estate published by a state-owned newspaper in Zimbabwe has shown.

The report of the relatively limited fortune of the late dictator, published on Tuesday, was greeted with scepticism by many in the poverty-hit southern African country.

Mugabe, who died in August aged 95, was thought to have amassed a portfolio of investments worth hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, over his near four-decade rule.

The most recent list was revealed when Mugabe’s daughter Bona Chikowore wrote to legal officials seeking to register her father’s estate, which she said included $10m held in a local bank, four houses in the capital, Harare, 10 cars, a farm, his rural home and an orchard, the Herald newspaper reported.

Timeline Robert Mugabe Show Hide Mugabe is born in what was then British-ruled Southern Rhodesia. He is educated at Catholic schools and attends South Africa's University of Fort Hare. During the 1940s and 50s he teaches in Zambia and Ghana, where he is influenced by African independence movement leaders. After campaigning for Zimbabwe's independence, he is imprisoned for political agitation. While incarcerated, he earns two law degrees from the University of London. Released from prison, he escapes to Mozambique where Zimbabwe African National Union guerrilla fighters elect him to lead their struggle against white minority rule. Mugabe's Zanu-PF party wins independent Zimbabwe's first election and he takes office as prime minister. Mugabe deploys North Korean-trained troops to crush an insurgency by former guerrillas loyal to his liberation war rival Joshua Nkomo. Government forces are accused of involvement in the killing of 20,000 civilians, which Mugabe denies. Mugabe becomes president with sweeping executive powers after changes to the constitution and signs a unity pact with Nkomo, who becomes one of his two deputies. In 1990, Zanu-PF and Mugabe win further parliamentary and presidential elections. An economic crisis marked by high interest rates and inflation sparks riots. Zimbabweans reject a new constitution in a referendum, Mugabe's first defeat at the ballot box. Thousands of independence war veterans and their allies, backed by the government, seize white-owned farms, saying the land was illegally appropriated by white settlers. The US puts a financial freeze on Mugabe's government in response to land seizures, beginning a wave of sanctions against his regime. Mugabe wins a disputed presidential vote, which observers condemn as flawed. Zimbabwe is suspended from the British Commonwealth over accusations of human rights abuses and economic mismanagement. Hyperinflation reaches 500bn per cent, forcing millions of people to leave the country. Mugabe loses a presidential vote but wins the run-off after opponent Morgan Tsvangirai withdraws, citing violence against his supporters. A power-sharing agreement is signed. Despite reports saying Mugabe has been seriously ill with cancer, he wins another disputed presidential vote. Western observers cite multiple accounts of electoral fraud. After protesters stage the biggest show of defiance against Mugabe in a decade, he is forced to resign following an army coup and is replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa. Mugabe dies aged 95.

No will has yet been found and there has been no other declaration of Mugabe’s wealth, or that of his second wife, Grace, nor of his sons and other relatives.

The former guerrilla leader, who took power in 1980 and ruled for decades, was buried in September in his rural home town of Kutama.

The final burial place caused tension between the government, which wanted him to be interred at the National Heroes Acre, a hilltop shrine in Harare, and his family.

From liberation fighter to deposed leader – Robert Mugabe's life in pictures Read more

When he was ousted from power in November 2017, Mugabe was given a generous state pension and a retirement package that included a pension, housing, holiday and transport allowance, health insurance, limited air travel and security.

Some of the Mugabe family wealth has been exposed by a series of legal quarrels. One, between Grace Mugabe and a Belgian-based businessman over a $1.3m diamond ring, lifted a veil on the lifestyle of his widow, nicknamed “Gucci Grace” for her reputed dedication to shopping. The family is believed to have an extensive portfolio of luxury homes overseas. In 2015, a dispute revealed their ownership of a $7.6m home in Hong Kong.

The ruling Zanu-PF party said in October it planned to transfer ownership of the sprawling mansion in Harare where Mugabe lived until shortly before his death to the family. The house is worth several million dollars.

The Mugabes are also thought to own more than a dozen farms. Several are in Mazowe, about 40km (25 miles) north of Harare. One, belonging to Grace Mugabe, has been the centre of a recent land dispute.

A 2001 US diplomatic cable, later released by WikiLeaks, said that while reliable information was difficult to find, there were rumours that Mugabe’s assets “include everything from secret accounts in Switzerland, the Channel Islands and the Bahamas to castles in Scotland”.

The news of the Mugabes’ wealth comes as Zimbabwe plunges further into a humanitarian crisis. The UN food agency said on Tuesday it was procuring 240,000 tonnes of food assistance to deliver to 4.1 million people in the former British colony where food shortages are being exacerbated by runaway inflation and drought induced by climate change.

“We are very much concerned as the situation continues to deteriorate,” Eddie Rowe, World Food Programme country director, speaking from Harare, told a news briefing in Geneva.

The country, once the breadbasket of Africa, is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a decade, marked by soaring inflation and shortages of food, fuel, medicines and electricity. The aid will be for January to June, Rowe said.