Look out, here comes Grace!

via Look out, here comes Grace! 8 October 2014 by Tawanda Majoni

It would be a sad day for Zimbabwe if Grace Mugabe succeeded her husband as President. That sad day beckons, though. Her chances of keeping the reins at home are increasing by the week.

Readers probably heard Oppah Muchinguri announce last week that Grace had become President Robert Mugabe’s chief advisor. That sounds intriguing and surprising, but you know how things work in Zanu (PF).

Anything and everything goes. To show that Oppah knows what she is talking about, there are strong reports indicating that Grace is already manipulating Mugabe. We hear that she now tells him who he should meet, even where government business is concerned.

That is why, the whispers say, Sydney Sekeramayi is finding it difficult to gain access to his boss. Grace does not want him, or Gideon Gono, or any other contender, close to the Zimbabwe Chief Executive Officer because she doesn’t want them jeopardising her chances of taking over from him. And Mugabe is listening and obeying.

He is being held in pleasant captivity by his wife. The reality is plain enough to see. Mugabe still has some influence over what happens in Zanu (PF) and government.

That is why all those faction leaders in the ruling party lack the guts to stand up to him. On the other hand, Grace now decides what the president says and thinks. Give me a 49-year- old wife who would not sway a 90 year-old-man and I will tell you what Nikuv did with our votes. Grace wants to rule and has made Mugabe think the same way, even though he is not yet talking about it for strategic reasons.

Will Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is most likely the architect behind Grace’s political rise, embrace her new-found love of power? There is no direct contradiction between Mnangagwa and his faction—via the likes of Oppah—elevating Grace, possibly to the presidency, to fulfilltheir own ambitions of maintaining and boosting their political grip and ambitions. Mnangagwa has all along remained a shadowy and secretive schemer. It might turn out, after all, that he shed his wish to rule Zimbabwe directly long back, considering all those odds against him. He could just be happy being a kingmaker or, in this case, a queenmaker. There is so much benefit to reap from backing Grace. Her clue of how Zanu (PF) works is wafer-thin and is she therefore vulnerable.

Soon, there will be no Mugabe for her to fall back on and she will be the sheep that the wolves watch over. A sheep guarded by wolves and she-wolves is the sorriest creature that God ever created. It will run in all the directions that the beasts want. I would not be surprised if the Mnangagwa camp is plotting for that.

You only underestimate Grace at your own peril. Come to think of it, she is the only one from Zanu (PF) who has been allowed to trot off on a campaign trail ahead of the coming Zanu (PF) congress. This might be cloaked as a “thank you” tour after she was nominated the Women’s League boss in waiting, but that cloak is so transparent the truth can be seen from across the ocean. Grace is already campaigning for bigger things. She is trying to catch up with a grassroots that she neglected for so long.

What makes her campaign even more telling is that it is not backed by the party’s constitution, meaning she is acting illegally. Yet no-one is touching her.

Remember, she was also nominated against the rules and regulations of the party because she had not served for a long time in a senior position. But no-one in the party dares throw the first stone at her for bending rules. Why not? Because she is Mugabe’s wife and she has influence over him. She is a fraudster for conniving in being awarded a doctoral degree she didn’t earn.

She is capable of getting things her own way. Why? Because she is Mugabe’s wife and there are powerful people who are determined to give her what she wants.

If she could rig her way into the Women’s League and into a doctorate, she can surely get onto Mugabe’s throne. She is enjoying her place in the sun because of Zanu (PF)’s manipulated democracy.

Mugabe knows his time is nigh; Mnangagwa has seen that the best way to have power is to endear himself to Mugabe through Grace; and Grace has seen a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rule Zimbabwe.

That she doesn’t have the numbers, that she is ill-respected in the party and beyond and that she has a soiled personal history will not count for much. She has changed the power game and given a new look to Zanu (PF) factionalism. – To comment on this article, please contact majonitt@gmail.com

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