Grace Mugabe should slow down

By Maxwell Sibanda

First Lady Grace Mugabe should be advised to slow down as she ascends to the ruling Zanu PF hierarchy.

While she has received the full support from all provinces that have endorsed her candidature to become Zanu PF Women League’s chairperson at next month’s women’s congress, her recent militant salvos against party members and all those she feels are blocking her way will not win her any favour.

Grace has a lot to learn from Vice President Joice Mujuru because you rarely hear her openly attack other political personalities within or outside her party.

The First Lady has to behave like a mother, and indeed like a “Mother Theresa” as some in Zanu PF now prefer to call her.

The “Mother Theresa” tag will not be so easy for Grace to carry as long as she remains arrogant and spitting venom at imagined opponents whenever she addresses gatherings.

We have seen her in the past tear into MDC leaders, Morgan Tsvangirai and Tendai Biti, something you will never hear from Mujuru.

And before Grace even ascends to her intended post, she is already on a warpath with ordinary people in Mazowe who accuse her family of wanting to grab all their land.

It was unfortunate that the First Lady used a recent public meeting with Zanu PF youths to castigate Mazowe South legislator Fortune Chasi whom she threatened to deal with alleging that he was spreading falsehoods about her and her family’s controversial land grabs.

She said Chasi was terrorising her.

One wonders what Grace was trying to teach the youths who had converged in Mazowe to support her candidature for the women’s top post. And she was boasting that while her fist seemed small, she would fill it with stones to produce a hard punch — really?

While Grace is boasting saying she will manage political office by virtue of having learnt a lot through being President Robert Mugabe’s wife, the leadership style she is already exhibiting will eventually be her downfall.

If indeed Chasi, who is also deputy minister of Justice had been a barricade in the First Family’s ambitions to own more land, and if it was a genuine concern, I do not think Mugabe could have failed to deal with it. Instead Mugabe seemed to have ignored these concerns and kept quiet leaving it to Grace.

But we seem to be heading for interesting times now as Grace takes on perceived family enemies and publicly threatens them — and obviously they are many.

The attack on Chasi by Grace was itself a direct incitement on the youths she was addressing. Who will blame them if they attack the legislator on her behalf?

Grace is sending chills within Zanu PF because anyone can be victimised in the future, more so when she lands the Zanu PF Women League’s top post. For those in Zanu PF who once crossed her path, it seems it will be payback time once she lands the post.

And everyone knows what kind of a leader Mugabe is, so for Grace to want Zimbabweans to rally behind her because of what she learnt from her husband is suicidal for most who have received the brunt of the ageing leader’s rule.

In other words, Grace is saying she is another Mugabe in the making and whatever style her husband used in his 34-year rule, would apply once she is in power — my foot! Daily News