Mugabe castigates promiscuous men
MUTARE – President Robert Mugabe has castigated promiscuous men for fuelling the increasing number of divorce cases in the country, saying their behaviour is detrimental to the nation.
Speaking at the third Zimbabwe Local Government Association (Zilga) biennial conference here on Friday, Mugabe said married men should uphold good morals by staying away from mistresses, commonly referred to as “small houses”.
“All our men think they have a right to be morally loose. I mean to be morally loose. Zvinonzi hurume ndizvo zvaunoreva. When married, you are supposed to have one wife. The number of divorces is on the increase and I do not think we are building the nation,” he said.
The President drew loud applause from delegates when he said even some of the journalists who write stories about infidelity were themselves promiscuous.
He added that he continues to receive reports regarding the promiscuity of various national leaders who are in the habit of lavishing their mistresses with expensive gifts such as vehicles and houses. He said siring children with different women was bound to negatively affect the offspring.
“Journalists, do not think President Mugabe is damning his colleagues. He is also damning you. Zvandinonzwa zvakawanda imi wee. I do not think that is building our nation . . . Even the children themselves will find it difficult to unite. Do not spoil our nation.”
Mugabe said children were likely to imitate the bad behavioral examples set by their parents, adding that the general populace often loses respect for leaders who cheat on their spouses.
“When you cheat, people will not trust you, especially when the position you hold is an economic one. They will think you are abusing their money,” he said.
Ironically Mugabe ‘snatched’ his current wife Grace Mugabe from under the nose of then Air of Zimbabwe (intelligence officer) and husband Stanley Goreraza. The current First Lady then known as Grace Marufu worked as Mugabe’s secretary before she became his mistress while still married to Goreraza.
At the time Mugabe’s first wife Sally Mugabe was battling a chronic kidney ailment while Mugabe was having an affair with Grace. The affair resulted in two children, Bona, named after Mugabe’s mother, and Robert Peter, Jr.
Sally was never able to have any children with Mugabe after their only son, Michael Nhamodzenyika Mugabe, born 27 September 1963, died on the 26th of December 1966 from cerebral malaria in Ghana where Sally was working.
Sarah Francesca (Hayfron) Mugabe, popularly referred to as Sally Mugabe, was Mugabe’s wife until her death in 1992. On the 17th of August 1996, Mugabe married his former secretary, Grace Marufu, 41 years his junior, with whom he already had two children while she was married to Goreraza.
Bona Mugabe is currently 23 years old, meaning she was born in or around 1989, some three years before Sally Mugabe died. Robert Jnr, is 19 this year, meaning he was born in or around 1993, a few months after the death of Sally in 1992.
Meanwhile Mugabe dealt with Grace’s husband, Wing Commander Stanley Goreraza by dispatching him to work as a defence attaché at the Zimbabwean embassy in China. Goreraza and Grace had one child, a son, Russell Goreraza, who now manages his mother’s extensive farm property, Gushungo Dairy.
The couple only divorced between 1995 and 1996.
