The future of former First Lady, Grace Mugabe, who arguably created more enemies than friends during her husband’s last days in office, now hangs in the balance. The demise of the former president, Robert Mugabe, the man from whom Grace drew power and protection, leaves his wife now exposed. Grace, who during the greater part of husband’s presidency had been focused on charity work, before later venturing into politics. With the support of Mugabe, Grace was in December 2014 parachuted to the helm of ZANU-PF Women’s League, automatically qualifying to sit in the ruling party’s highest decision-making body, the Politburo. The ex-First Lady then used her position and marriage to Mugabe to vilify all those she perceived to be harbouring ambitions of succeedi
It’s been an appropriately fractured, uneasy week in Zimbabwe. As the country has tried to deal with the long-anticipated death of its loved and loathed founding father, Robert Mugabe, the nation has experienced an unsettling and contradictory jumble of deep reverence, nostalgia, indifference, hypocrisy and anger, combined with an almost soap-opera quantity of plot twists. At the heart of those contradictions and twists, sits the enigmatic and widely reviled Grace Mugabe – the grieving widow, her face now hidden beneath a dark veil, a woman whose fortunes, over the decades, have revealed so much about how power really works in Zimbabwe. She was the secretary who married the president, who then became infamous for her lavish shopping sprees and fiery temper. Grace earne
The late former President Cde Robert Mugabe will be buried at the national heroes acre on a date to be announced. This was said by the Mugabe family spokesperson Mr Leo Mugabe in an interview with Zimpapers Television Network at the Blue Roof mansion this morning. “The family and the tradional leaders have pronounced that he will be buried at the National Heroes Acre…as to when he will be buried there are things that the chiefs want done at the national heroes acre and those will take time. “I would also want to dispel the rumours that have been doing the rounds that the chiefs were paid, they were not paid. It’s all absolute nonsense, they were not paid. When we visited the President I was with them. It was merely meant to go and thank the Government for
reports that Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe will be buried early next week in his village and not at a national monument for liberation heroes, his family said on Thursday. The family of Mugabe, who died in Singapore last week, and Zimbabwe’s government have been at odds over whether he would be buried in his homestead in Kutama, northwest of Harare, or at the National Heroes Acre in the capital.His body will lie in state at Kutama on Sunday night.., followed by a private burial – either Monday or Tuesday – no National Heroes Acre. That’s the decision of the whole family,” his nephew Leo Mugabe told AFP. Mugabe, whose autocratic rule ended in a military coup in 2017, died last week aged 95. His body was flown back from Singapore on Wednesd
Eleven Heads of State and eight former Presidents from various African countries have so far confirmed their attendance at the late former President Robert Mugabe’s State funeral service set for Saturday. Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet in charge of Presidential Communications, Mr George Charamba confirmed the list of the Heads of State that will attend the ceremony in a statement this afternoon. The 11 are Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, DRC’S Felix Tshisekedi, Ghana’s Nana Akufo-Addo, Malawi’s Arthur Peter Mutharika, Angola’s Joao Laurenco, Saharawi’s Brahim Ghali, South Africa’s Cyril Rhamaphosa, Mozambique’s Felipe Nyusi, Zambia’s Edgar Lungu, Namibia’s Hage Geingob
ven in death, former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe remains an Achilles’ heel for his successor Emmerson Mnangagwa’s legitimacy. Since 1977, Mnangagwa has been on Mugabe’s side – first as his assistant, then as a body guard and then as a trusted minister from 1980, only to leave cabinet between 2000 and 2005, when he lost in parliamentary elections. Still, Mugabe kept him on the political radar as speaker of parliament, despite Mnangagwa plotting with Jonathan Moyo to effect “leadership change” in the Zanu-PF that would have resulted in a palace coup to remove Mugabe through the infamous Dinyane Declaration in Tsholotsho, Matabeleland North. Despite spending all these years as allies, in his last days in office last year, Mugabe passed a vote of
The body of Zimbabwe’s founder Robert Mugabe arrived at the country’s main airport on Wednesday but his final resting place remains a source of mystery amid a dispute between some family members and the government. Mugabe, one of the last “Big Men” of African politics who ruled the southern African nation for 37 years until he was ousted by his own army in November 2017, died in a Singapore hospital five days ago. He is proving as polarising in death as he was in life, as the fight over where he will be buried threatens to embarrass his successor, President Emmerson Mnangagwa, and deepen divisions in the ruling ZANU-PF party. The former president’s body arrived at Harare’s Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport shortly at 15:00hrs. Crowds h
President Robert Gabriel Mugabe’s final resting place has been topical since he sadly passed away on 6th September 2019. Charlatans who are seeking to hijack President Mugabe’s legacy for their own selfish reasons have been fueling this speculation for several weeks. Unfortunately, hijacking President Mugabe’s legacy for expediency will only provide transient relief to such grave robbers. One of President Mugabe most important, but yet to be fully acknowledged legacy resides in his direct off-spring; his children and grand-children. I know that President Mugabe was eternally grateful to his wife, Amai Grace Mugabe, for providing him with the opportunity to have his legacy live on through his children and grand-children. Makaita basa Mwenewazvo. Speculation around
The MDC was due to hold its 20th Anniversary on Saturday at Rufaro Stadium, Harare, as the day for the National Memorial Service for the late President Robert Mugabe. As MDC, being a Pan-Africanist and social democratic party, consistent with our values of ubuntu, solidarity and empathy we have decided to postpone our 20th Anniversary Celebrations to the 28th September 2019 so as to allow the funeral proceedings and events not to compete with our Anniversary celebrations. This is in line with our values of ubuntu, solidarity and empathetic leadership. We had our differences, which are well documented and recorded, with the late President Mugabe, but this is not the time to rehash those differences. This is the time to join the former President’s relatives an
President Mnangagwa has expressed surprise that some members of former President Robert Mugabe’s family are not in the country allegedly fearing persecution and were worried about being barred from attending the funeral of the veteran nationalist who passed away on Friday morning, The Herald heard yesterday. Patrick Zhuwao, Cde Mugabe’s nephew, is reportedly in “exile” fearing for his life. This emerged at the weekend as the Mugabe family engaged President Mnangagwa on logistics to give the former President his final rest. The family appointed Mr Leo Mugabe as its sole spokesperson. Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Mr George Charamba, who is also the Presidential spokesperson, revealed that on Friday the Mugabe family and Zvimba ch
