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Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's wife on Wednesday said the cash-strapped country's economic woes have badly hit her dairy business.
"I manufacture yoghurt but no one buys it," Grace Mugabe told supporters at a rally in the capital Harare. "You can't even find a person who can buy a packet of milk."
Mugabe's critics have branded the first lady "Gucci Grace" for her lavish lifestyle, designer clothes and shopping sprees abroad.
Grace Mugabe, who is 41 years younger than her 90-year-old husband, complained that Western sanctions imposed on the couple were hurting the economy.
Mugabe and his close aides and their companies have been the subject of European Union and US sanctions for undermining democracy.
The sanctions have been lifted on most of the entities and individuals expect for a few, including Mugabe and those close to him.
Battling to make ends meet
Once seen as a post-colonial role model, Zimbabwe's economy has been in a downward spiral since thousands of white-owned farms were seized under a controversial land reform programme in 2000.
Critics have blamed the land grabs for the economic downturn and Zimbabweans are battling to makes ends meet. Millions have fled the country as economic refugees.
The first lady however defended the controversial land reforms on Wednesday.
"We are just taking our property that was stolen from us by thieves," she said, speaking in the local Shona language.
Grace Mugabe, who was recently nominated to lead the powerful women's wing of the ruling Zanu-PF party, has launched a series of campaign rallies ahead of the party's December congress, where she is certain to have that position endorsed.
