Fierce battles are being fought as Zanu PF attempts to settle the succession score. There are now too many persons of suspicious characteristics that are involved. Some of the parties involved include the security forces, Zanu PF factions, mainstream opposition parties and the almost incapacitated President Robert Mugabe. Of all the factions involved, Generation 40 (G40) is enjoying an upper hand.
Source: Contempt of the Presidency – Southern Eye May 23, 2016
The boldness assumed by Zanu PF’s G40 faction portends an impending political travesty. First Lady Grace Mugabe and her brood of political steers and heifers have become so emboldened that they utter statements that are both reckless and are of concern. Some of the statements are so inflammatory that the possibility of Zimbabwe flaring up into an uncontrollable inferno cannot be ruled out.
In one of her strongest addresses to her supporters so far, Grace confirmed her position as a major political force with king-making capabilities. She used her privileged position of presidential spouse to belittle men who have been in the political business for most of their longish lives. She even had the audacity to rip into the manhood of State security by hinting that some of the military commanders were heavily involved in attempts to either derail her own ambitions or to undermine the authority of her husband.
Expectedly, Grace tore into the heart of Team Lacoste. Oozing with confidence and assertiveness, Amai reminded Team Lacoste that the presidency was appropriately occupied by a capable incumbent. As if to further dampen the spirits of her internal opponents, the acerbic-tongued First Lady hinted to more Mugabe years. She repeated her promise that should Mugabe be physically incapacitated, she will push him around on a wheel chair to enable him to discharge his presidential duties.
Besides confirming that she is the most dangerous character in Zimbabwe’s political quandary, Grace’s address to her supporters exposed her political naivety.
She disclosed a lot of uncomfortable secrets that can precipitate the volatile situation into a conflagration. She has political muscle to flex around, thanks to her association with the President. Talking about the President, he has become a dangerous piece in the succession jigsaw puzzle by allowing his much younger wife to usurp his powers in pursuit of her personal ambitions.
Grace has gained more impetus in the succession game because her husband has left both party and State affairs to fate due to a lack of motivation to discharge his duties. Mugabe has taken an unofficial absence from his desk and this ineffectiveness has fuelled the intensity of the in-fighting amongst Zanu PF factions.
G40, which is fronted by Grace, has an upper-hand over Team Lacoste and the hapless presidency can only watch.
Currently, Grace wields so much influence that she has wriggled her sphere of influence into matters of State security. Naturally, she has a right to be bitter that some elements, be they from the armed forces or ordinary criminals, wanted to petrol-bomb her dairy business in Mazowe.
What Grace has no authority over is making unsubstantiated claims about a plot to have her son (Chatunga Bellarmine) killed. Should the chilling disclosure be true, however, the intensity of the succession battles would have assumed dirty proportions and the stink is definitely revolting.
If indeed Grace’s disclosures were to be true, this will equate to either usurpation of presidential powers or contempt of the presidency. If, by virtue of her closeness to the Commander-in-Chief, the Grace was privy to plots to commit subversion she has no authority to use that information for her personal political gains.
If indeed there is a plot to terminate young Chatunga’s life, the long arm of the law should move in and bring the hired would-be assassins to book. In Grace’s vocabulary, ambition rings louder bells than family values, hence her willingness to undermine her husband’s powers in order to irrigate her garden of ambitions.
It is an open secret that Grace has unwittingly become the busiest undermining force to the same power whose authority she wishes to safeguard. She knows that Mugabe is now a vulnerable political entity facing the prospects of political vultures looking to prey on his failing body.
She wakes up to his fallibility every morning and for as long as it suits her, she will continue to do her best to mask those faults from the public.
It is not a secret that she wants to be the only one who capitalises on those weaknesses to advance her personal agenda. Her special way of undermining the authority of the President is by way of releasing snippets of juicy information gained from their bedroom relationship.
Grace does not want to openly declare that the power vacuum that Zimbabwe finds herself in. She knows that nature abhors vacuums and that declaring one can lead to a frenzy of succession activities. It can be argued that Grace is scaring all other interested parties away from the vacuum as she plots an onslaught on the prospective vacuum before it becomes one.
lMasola wa Dabudabu writes in his personal capacity.
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