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It’s Dr. Dre’s mansion - not Mugabe’s ‘Blue Roof’ house, Citizen newspaper

This article is more than 6 years old

Drawing on a story by the UK’s dubious Daily Mail, Citizen newspaper in South Africa reported about a “depressed” Robert Mugabe being “cooped up” in his Harare home. Mugabe was president of Zimbabwe for 37 years until he resigned this week.

But the picture accompanying the piece shows the house of US rapper Dr. Dre in Brentwood, Los Angeles.

Built by supermodel Gisele Bündchen and American footballer Tom Brady, the “eco-conscious residence” comprises 1,300 m², featuring several bedrooms and a moat-like water feature. It was sold to Dr. Dre in 2014. (Note: View a picture gallery of the house here.)

Another picture in Citizen’s article of Mugabe’s “sparkling swimming pool” has previously been debunked by the website Hoax-Slayer. It’s also of a Los Angeles mansion.

That said, Mugabe certainly didn’t spare any expenses to build his house in the suburb of Borrowdale Brooke, dubbed the “Blue Roof”. At the time it was built, The Guardian reported the 25-bedroom “lavish palace” would cost £6 million in total. - 23/11/2017 



UPDATE: Shortly after we published this fact-check, Citizen removed the pictures from the story, but without indicating it had done so.

 

Additional reading:

https://africacheck.org/spot-check/no-daily-mail-zimbabwe-isnt-the-second-poorest-country-on-the-planet/

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