Masvingo, Zimbabwe: The first lady of Zimbabwe’s display of power was unspoken, though clear, during the governing party’s annual congress, as she focused her speech on new party regalia featuring a teacup-shaped image of her country.
“We all drink from the teacup,” Grace Mugabe, the first lady, said, explaining she had designed the regalia herself.
Not surprisingly, the next morning in Masvingo, the small town in southern Zimbabwe where the congress of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, President Robert Mugabe’s party, was held recently, nearly all officials wore clothes adorned with Grace Mugabe’s teacup design.
Grace Mugabe, 51, known mostly for her lavish overseas shopping trips until she entered politics two years ago — has emerged as one of the main actors in the manoeuvring to succeed Robert Mugabe, which has engulfed Zimbabwe in the last year, as the president’s decline presages the end of an era.
She is, to many people, the real power behind the throne, vowing to keep her husband in office until his death while she consolidates support. She told supporters recently that she was “already the president”.
The signs of Grace Mugabe’s growing stature are unmistakable. On stage at the party congress, she sat closest to her husband, who, a couple of months shy of 93, dozed through most speeches. Party leaders invariably praised her.
Robert Mugabe, the world’s oldest head of state and the only leader Zimbabwe has known since its independence in 1980, was selected as his party’s candidate in the 2018 presidential election. He would be 94 by then.
The first lady is reported to head one of the two competing factions inside ZANU-PF. But is she its leader, or just a useful puppet for veteran survivors of Zimbabwean politics? After her husband dies, will she hop on a plane for Dubai or elsewhere in Asia, where she and her children have established homes?
If she succeeds in grabbing power, it would most likely be a continuation of her husband’s government. Changes critical to reviving Zimbabwe’s economy are thought politically impossible under Robert Mugabe and would remain so under Grace Mugabe, whose legitimacy derives from her husband’s legacy.
