'Diana, Robert Mugabe and me': When I met the Harare strongman with a weak handshake

I met and interviewed Robert Mugabe at his residence in Harare 24 years ago. It was an unscheduled and surreal experience.

Then 69, he oozed authority in a smart tailored suit. He was in complete control. But that carefully cultivated strongman image was betrayed by a weak handshake, and he wouldn’t look me in the eye.

I had accompanied Princess Diana on a four-day “working visit” to Zimbabwe in 1993 in support of her charities. It was her first solo visit to Africa.

Back then the UK was giving £50 million in aid — its single biggest aid programme in Africa at the time — to the former Rhodesia.

Money was flooding into Zimbabwe and Mugabe was keen to keep the flow going. He held a one-to-one meeting with the princess and I was one of a handful of journalists outside. To my surprise, once the princess had left Mugabe came out and gave an impromptu and enthusiastic interview next to a stuffed lion that stood guard.

He said her presence alone would help focus attention on his country’s plight. He also said the visit had brought a little light into the lives of Zimbabweans.

“You can’t help but feel elated by the princess,” he told me. “She is an amazing woman. We discussed the Aids crisis and what we can do to combat it.”

This was nearly a quarter of a century ago, when the tyrant held a firm, military-backed grip on power.

Behind the scenes he was ruling with brute force and led a campaign of terror. But he knew the power of positive publicity and milked the Diana visit for all he could.

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