Amazing disGrace

via Amazing disGrace The Zimbabwean 14 January 2015

In 1996, a 72-year-old Robert Mugabe unveiled his blushing bride of just 31 – Grace Marufu. At the time of course she was a humble secretary, but the couple already had two children – 7-year-old Bona and 3-year-old Robert Junior.

As Robert and Grace smiled under a shower of confetti, the nation was doing arithmetic calculations. It was obvious that the Bob and Grace affair had begun as far back as 1988, when Sally – the original First Lady – was still with us. She died of a kidney ailment in 1992.

Fast forward two decades and we see this once shy young woman, now older but by no means wiser, making threats of murder – ‘blood will be shed’ (if anyone tries to take my farm). Despite owning vast tracts of land, Grace was in the news for grabbing more land, in October 2013, all for the orphan kids she said. The one man in Zanu (PF) – Fortune Chasi – who had the courage to raise objection to the land-grabbing spree was relieved of his position as Deputy Minister.

There were whispers about Robert Mugabe and his wife owning over 10 farms (10 600 hectares) through their company Gushungo Holdings – and all that in spite of the ruling party’s rhetoric about corruption and multiple farm ownership. At the Zanu (PF) youth congress, the Mugabes showed just a hint of the extent of their wealth when, without batting an eyelid, they fed 3 000 delegates who had gone to bed on empty bellies.

Those who are paid to kiss his shoe, claim Mugabe is God sent, like some sort messiah. The youth congress was the closest he came to replicating the real Messiah’s feeding of the 5 000. What the Mugabes thought was an act of philanthropy – 1 000 tonnes of maize, 30 head of cattle, an unspecified quantity of eggs and milk – only betrayed the degree of their ill-gotten wealth.