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President Mugabe

The First Lady, Cde Grace Mugabe returned home from Asia on Sunday to a big welcome in Harare by the party faithful.
As frank as ever, she gave details, while addressing the crowd that had gathered at the Harare International Airport to welcome her back, of the illness that had kept her abroad since the beginning of the year. She had an operation to remove her appendix; she told them and had now fully recovered.

She didn’t stop there. She spoke about her two previous operations, the first in 1986 to remove her tonsils and the second in 1996 to remove her gall bladder.

Her return disproved rumours on social and mainstream media, including a ridiculous one that she was comatose. The peddlers of the rumour did not ask themselves how President Robert Mugabe could go about his party, government, Sadc and African Union commitments as normally as he did if his wife was indeed in a coma. But because the rumour mongers are devoid of any honour, they amused themselves with their lies and believed them.

“There’s no one who does not fall sick,” she said. “It surprises me that there are people who laugh when others fall sick but these mortal bodies are not ours. We borrowed them and we all know it is God Almighty who gives life.

“So sometimes you feel bodily pain, other times you visit the hospital like I did and are told you are not well when you never thought you were unwell.”

She told the crowd that she was an incomplete human being now as she does not have three organs.

Few people speak openly about themselves, particularly their health concerns, but First Lady does. She has shown us since August that honesty and openness are her watchwords.

We welcome her back home. We wish her good health and strength.

Cde Mugabe comes home to a lot of work and expectations.

She practically begins her reign as Zanu-PF secretary for women affairs now. She has a huge task of steering this critical party organ forward after the challenges that bedevilled it over the past two years. Cde Mugabe probably hasn’t chaired an executive meeting of the Women’s League yet seeing that she was formally appointed secretary at congress in December and a few days later set off to the Far East with the President for their annual holiday, and returned on Sunday.

Her work is cut out for her as she has to reorganise the Women’s League that had been rendered dysfunctional by the cabal led by former Vice-President Joice Mujuru. The First Lady and her executive need to straighten the league so that it recommits itself to its mandate of advancing the interests of women in the party and country without perverting the revolution or plotting against the party leader, President Mugabe. For some time, there was a parallel leadership in the Women’s League. The rival leadership tended to operate around Cdes Olivia Muchena and Flora Buka and undermined the elected one led by Cde Oppah Muchinguri, the incumbent secretary going into the December congress.

Some party members were being used to advance Cde Mujuru’s ambitions to remove the President from office and were becoming too loyal to her and figures in her cabal.

That led Cde Mugabe to lead the campaign that stopped the Mujuru faction. Now that she is heading the Women’s League, she is expected to consolidate the new dispensation of a united party structure. Also, she is expected to consolidate the new-found loyalty to the only centre of power in the party, President Mugabe.

On another note, one of the reasons why the Women’s League was susceptible to abuse by Cde Mujuru was because its leadership was so weak it could not stand pressure from her and her cabal. We have had allegations by Cde Muchinguri that some senior male cadres prevented her from holding meetings and denied the league resources like vehicles to undertake its work.  But with Cde Mugabe in charge, we look forward to seeing a stronger league that runs its affairs with the necessary autonomy but contributing to the advancement of the broader goals of the revolution.

A lot is expected of Cde Mugabe again in terms of defending the party amid continued attacks from deposed former secretary for administration, Cde Didymus Mutasa and expelled former spokesman, Rugare Gumbo. They are still making noises and are threatening to take Zanu-PF to court over the December congress.

Cde Mugabe is member of the national disciplinary committee set up recently to, among other tasks, call Cde Mutasa to a hearing and decide what action to take against his rebellious activity.

The First Lady starts the real work as a politician now. A lot is expected from her but Zanu-PF should be stronger with her.