Dongo attacks Grace’s entry into politics

via Dongo attacks Grace’s entry into politics 11/10/2014

OUTSPOKEN politician Margaret Dongo has lambasted the ruling Zanu PF party for parachuting First Lady Grace Mugabe to the helm of the women’s league.

Dongo, the leader of the now defunct Zimbabwe Union of Democrats (ZUD) and a veteran of Zimbabwe’s 1970s bush war against Ian Smith’s settler regime, criticised President Robert Mugabe for flouting his own party’s rules.

She said Mugabe was now abusing war veterans to enrich his own clan.

“I am failing to understand how the first lady (Grace Mugabe) qualified to campaign for such a powerful position because as far as I know in Zanu PF one has to come from the structures, beginning from the grassroots up until to the central committee and then the politburo, something which did not happen to her,” Dongo told NewZimbabwe.com in Harare on Thursday.

“War veterans who fought for the liberation of the country, whose fruits Mugabe is enjoying today, if they want to go into the central committee they are told to follow the party procedures of joining the structures from the grassroots.”

Dongo, well known for speaking her mind, fell out with Zanu PF in the mid-1990s over her fearless defence of human rights and democracy.

Mugabe in August gave the green light to his wife to enter mainstream politics. Grace will likely boss the Zanu PF Women’s League after the party’s elective congress in December.

The decision by Grace to enter politics threw Mugabe’s Zanu PF party into further turmoil.

Zanu PF is currently split into two factions one supporting Vice-President Joice Mujuru while the other is backing Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.

But Grace’s entry into politics has complicated matters with some critics saying she is now a dark horse to succeed her husband. Others say she is being used by the Mnangagwa faction to block Mujuru from ascending to the presidency in the event that Mugabe, who is now 90, steps down from power or dies in office.

Grace has over the past two weeks been holding whirlwind rallies across the country to drum up support for her political career ahead of the conference.

Dongo said the publicity Grace has been getting from the media has been amazing.

“There are a lot of women who have led the Zanu PF Women’s League but did not get that kind of publicity, why? Just because they did not have the political power Mugabe has,” she said.

“There are a lot of senior members in the party who participated in the liberation struggle but are being sidelined. We have a lot of people who were injured during the liberation struggle who deserve to occupy those positions but because they do not have anyone to speak for them they will remain in the wilderness.”

Dongo said she had a lot of respect for Mugabe’s late wife, Sally, who died in 1992.

Dongo said she had gone back to her rural home in Mhondoro which “I turned into a farm because I was not given a farm because they say I am too talkative.”

Dongo did not participate in the last two elections held in 2013 and 2008.

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