Grace parades her power again

By Mugove Tafirenyika

HARARE – President Robert Mugabe’s increasingly-influential wife, Grace, has once again flaunted her power in the strife-torn post-congress Zanu PF, forcing her nonagenarian husband to postpone yesterday’s important politburo meeting to Thursday to accommodate the controversial First Lady’s rally in Rushinga.

Mugabe and other members of the ruling party’s top decision-making body were scheduled to meet in Harare to look into preparations for the former liberation movement’s crucial annual conference, to be held in Victoria Falls in early December, amid Zanu PF’s seemingly unstoppable factional and succession wars.

But as has become the norm since Grace’s dramatic entry into formal politics last year, it is no longer business as usual both within the ruling party and in government — as each time she mounts one of these numerous rallies, Zimbabwe comes to a standstill and everything else takes second precedence.

The First Lady’s rally was to be held at Chimhanda in Rushinga District, Mashonaland Central — a week after she addressed a similarly disruptive political gathering at Mutambara Mission in Manicaland Province’s Chimanimani District.

Well-placed Zanu PF sources told the Daily News that valiant efforts by some aggrieved party bigwigs linked to Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa to go ahead with the crucial politburo meeting came to naught as Mugabe would have none of that.

“If anyone in the party still doubts that Dr Amai (Grace) is now in charge, they should have their head examined. As you guys (the Daily News) have said, Dr Amai is the most powerful person in Zimbabwe today.

“The tradition to date has been that the politburo does not sit only when the president is away or not feeling well. This is a new thing that the politburo does not sit because Dr Amai can’t make it. She is now in charge,” lamented a miffed politburo member.

Grace provided yet another public demonstration of her power last week when a huge Cabinet entourage, including Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko, accompanied her to her Manicaland rally — as is bound to happen.

This is despite the fact that the controversial First Lady says that she is mounting these rallies in her capacity as Zanu PF women’s league secretary, and also notwithstanding the serious economic challenges facing Zimbabwe that require the urgent attention of senior government officials.

In addition, even the cash-strapped Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) covers these controversial rallies live  — in costly exercises that are usually reserved for her long-ruling husband.

And to rub it in to her Zanu PF foes, she often uses the rallies to delve into government policies, and to embarrass and issue irregular instructions to the country’s obsequious vice presidents and Cabinet ministers.

At her Chimanimani rally, for example, Mphoko and the gathered Cabinet ministers were left with no choice but to bootlick her, in an embarrassing spectacle that left many people wondering about the ruling party’s so-called one-centre of power mantra that should only see her husband eulogised.

Mphoko even suffered the public indignity of having to introduce her to the crowd, even though he is her senior within the ruling party.

Most of the Cabinet ministers and party officials who grace her rallies are those linked to Zanu PF’s ambitious Young Turks known as the Generation 40 (G40) group — that is said to include combative Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere — and which is locked in a bitter power struggle with Mnangagwa and his supporters.

Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo confirmed to the Daily News that the politburo would be receiving an update on the party’s preparedness for its December conference.

“The committees organising the conference will brief the politburo on their progress and I can tell you all is going according to plan. But I would suggest I give you full details after that meeting,” he said.

“Apart from causing the postponement of a crucial politburo meeting you are going to observe that like her previous rally in Manicaland a huge Cabinet entourage, including MPs will accompany her to Mashonaland Central tomorrow because at this  stage nobody would want to be seen as not supporting her,” the politburo member who spoke to the Daily News said.

Zanu PF provincial chairperson for Mashonaland Central, Dickson Mafios — who is Kasukuwere’s brother — promised that a “massive turnout” by Zanu PF supporters would be there to receive Grace in Rushinga.

“The liberation war was intense in this district and the coming of the mother of the nation (Grace) will be soothing for this community.

“We are receiving Dr Amai not only in her capacity as the mother of the nation, but also as one of our biggest farmers in the province,” Mafios said of Grace whose business hub is in Mazowe. Daily News