Wishes of the First Lady

By The Standard and Newsday | Dec. 1, 2014

THOSE involved in the recent Zanu PF constitutional amendments giving President Robert Mugabe complete and unchallenged power to do as he pleases should not speak when the wily old fox uses his prerogative to sideline them.

It is not a secret that not all Zanu PF officials are happy with amendments that were rammed through by a faction that fears the ballot hence the uncouth means to reduce this week’s party gathering from an elective congress to a mere rubberstamp of the wishes of the First Lady Grace Mugabe.

They are Grace’s wishes because everything she spewed during her so-called “meet the people tour” has been adopted and implemented by the ruling party ahead of what should now be a conference to celebrate her rise from housewife to a top Zanu PF boss.

Zimbabweans should brace for a more powerful First Lady by the end of this week as the carefully chosen congress delegates are most likely to demand that the president reward his wife with a position more senior than the women’s league boss for causing the removal of officials suspected of suspending their support for the 91-year-old leader.

If the delegates demand that they want Grace to succeed her long-serving husband, will the architects of the so-called internal realignment process back the move?

It would be interesting to note how they would react because one is convinced that the current unfolding scenario was not anticipated when the assault on all perceived Vice-President Joice Mujuru’s backers initially started.

No doubt none of them devised this strategy with the objective of securing a presidium post for the increasingly powerful Grace.

The initial plot seems to have been meant to use her as the women’s league secretary so they could grab the presidium posts for themselves, but alas, how dirty politics can actually become.