Source: ‘Grace must not run for VP’ – DailyNews Live
Tendai Kamhungira 31 October 2017
HARARE – First Lady Grace Mugabe must not stand as vice president at Zanu
PF’s extraordinary congress in December, a move veteran political analyst
and civil society leader Brian Kagoro described as a potential “titanic
political error.”
Grace has not announced any plans to run in the vote scheduled for
December, but has made several speeches in recent months, prompting
speculation that she was seeking the second secretary and VP post.
The ruling Zanu PF has officially announced plans of the special vote to
give veteran President Robert Mugabe a fresh five-year mandate as party
leader, and consider a women’s league proposal to elevate a woman into the
presidium.
“My own view is that – though easily doable – it would be a titanic
political error for Grace Mugabe to go for the vice presidency during her
husband’s tenure as president,” Kagoro told the Daily News in an exclusive
interview.
“The moral implications and optics would be abysmal. This would only serve
to galvanise and deepen sentiment against the first family and Zanu PF
across the party divide, generational divide and class divide.
“It would caricature the entire Zanu PF process, mutilate whatever remains
of its liberation heritage and legacy and above all paint Grace Mugabe as
a power-hungry and self-interested Machiavellian character.
“This too would suit the narrative by her detractors that seeks to paint
her as a threat to Zanu PF’s long-term survival. I suspect that she is
better advised and politically astute than be tempted onto such an
irreversible and disastrous path.”
The call for a woman in the presidium has so far been endorsed by the
ruling party’s women’s league and the youth league.
There is a sense that the 93-year-old president could also use the party
election in December to put a lid on widening divisions in its top ranks,
raising the prospect of the removal of some of his challengers, mainly his
deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mnangagwa is allegedly leading Team Lacoste, a faction in the Zanu PF
party battling it out with a camp of Young Turks known as Generation 40
(G40) fronted by Grace.
The quota system, which allows a woman into the presidium, was once used
against Mnangagwa in 2004, which saw the elevation of former Vice
President Joice Mujuru, before it was scrapped.
However, under the new efforts to push for a woman into the presidium, the
G40 is reportedly rallying behind the move to have Zanu PF revert to its
old constitution.
Under Article 7 (31) of the old party’s Constitution, there was a
declaration that four members of the party’s central committee were
supposed to be a president and first secretary, two vice presidents and
second secretaries – one of whom shall be a woman – and a national
chairperson.
However, Kagoro said it will be ill-advised for Grace to take up the
position of vice president.
“There is speculation that her game plan is to become vice president and
ultimately president of Zimbabwe. We must distinguish between being vice
president of Zimbabwe through an elective process and being appointed as
such by the Zanu PF Congress.
“Mafirakureva (Grace) could easily bag the post of VP if she really wanted
it,” Kagoro said.
“I suspect that politically it would be more strategic for her to allow
one of her allies, a pliant, loyal and senior female – preferably with war
veteran credentials – to land the VP job. Without being appointed into the
presidium, Grace Mugabe already commands a lot of informal power and
`unusual’ influence for a liberation party. The critical votes of the
provincial as well as women and youth structures will determine the female
vice presidency,” he said.
Grace has been on a warpath against Mnangagwa since his hospitalisation
amid claims the VP had suffered food poisoning after eating ice cream from
a dairy company owned by Mugabe and his wife. The first lady has angrily
denied responsibility for Mnangagwa’s illness and accused him of lying
about it to get public sympathy.
“Why should I kill Mnangagwa? Who is Mnangagwa on this earth?” Grace fumed
at the launch of an empowerment bank.
“Killing someone who was given a job by my husband? That is nonsensical.”
Kagoro said there is a method to Grace’s haphazard attacks to her
husband’s allies.
“The role of Grace Mugabe in Zimbabwean politics has been enigmatic,”
Kagoro told the Daily News.
“Beyond the public irritation with her seemingly irreverent and culturally
inappropriate public humiliation of men of power, there is need to analyse
what she has achieved.
“She has managed to dismantle – wittingly or unwittingly – strong men and
women who many assumed were entitlement to rule Zimbabwe. In doing so she
has exposed herself to great ridicule, scorn and in some circles,
admiration.
“Like her or hate her, Grace Mugabe, has become a `kingmaker’ of sorts in
her own right. Whether this is short-lived or outlives her husband’s
tenure, it is material. It is what it is.
“Where her vitriolic attacks are driven by fear or ambition is less
important than their most immediate effect on the Zimbabwean political
landscape. This fact is often obscured by the focus on her excesses and
fundamental personal limitations,” he said.
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