Investigations into illicit and illegal activities led and directed by the former first lady of the country Grace Mugabe have intensified, amid indications the government will make a huge statement soon regarding her involvement in ivory poaching, Khuluma Afrika reported.

Grace Mugabe, who is now subject to a forensic audit by the ruling Zanu PFs women’s league over “hundreds of millions” of party funds is also facing intense investigations regarding externalisation of assets and cash, involvement in setting up parallel money markets as well as illegal export of precious minerals.

Khuluma Afrika has now learnt that the net has been cast wider to include ivory poaching after preliminary investigations revealed that the former first lady and her associates were involved in the poaching of elephant tusks and rhino horns.

Documents seen by Khuluma Afrika implicate Grace Mugabe and a number of close associates, including a Chinese associate (name supplied) in a ring of organised crime which is responsible for the poisoning of hundreds of jumbos in the country.

Several tusks are also said to have disappeared from the ivory stock piles, while some ivory was carved at factories in Harare, before export permits were forged.

The new government in Zimbabwe has taken a no nonsense approach to conservation and vowed to arrest any person’s implicated or involved in poaching ‘regardless of who they are, or who they know’.