Mugabe the brains behind wife's political rise

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe for the first time opened up on the raging drama in Zanu PF in the wake of the ascendency of his wife Grace to the top post of the all-powerful Women's League.

Mugabe had remained tight-lipped when accusations and counter accusations flew in the party due to the tremors that Grace's entry into politics had caused in Zanu PF until on Sunday after touching down at Harare International Airport from his week-long State visit to China.

Cracks in the faction-ridden party had been widening each day, with factions invoking Grace's name in the nasty fights to succeed the veteran leader, who has led Zimbabwe for the past 34 years.

A faction reportedly led by Mugabe's second-in-command, Vice-President Joice Mujuru, and another reportedly led by Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa are tussling for the control of Zanu PF in the  post-Mugabe era.

Speculation had been rife that Grace had been persuaded to enter into the political fray by the Mnangagwa faction in an apparent move to deal a blow on the Mujuru faction that had seemingly enjoyed enormous support from the Women's League.

Soon after the endorsement of Grace by the country's 10 provinces at her belated 49th birthday party in Mazowe in July, a lot has happened in the party, including public spats between party hawks along factional lines, but Mugabe had remained mute.

First was the incumbent Women's League boss, Oppah Muchinguri, who launched a diatribe against other party hawks while addressing party youths who had gone to Mazowe to show solidarity with the appointment of the First Lady to lead the women's wing.

At the official opening of the Women's League conference in Harare, Muchinguri, in what seemed to be an apparent attack on Mujuru, said Zanu PF Women's League was against women who burnt their husbands in homes.

Mujuru's husband, General Solomon Mujuru, died in an inferno at his Beatrice farmhouse in 2011.

Drama continued to unfold, with the Amos Midzi-led Harare provincial executive reportedly refusing to give Grace a political sanctuary.

Harare provincial political commissar Shadreck Mashayamombe is alleged to have called Mugabe's nephew Patrick Zhuwao and advised him to tell the First Lady to look for a political home in Mashonaland West, Mugabe's home province.

This was followed by skirmishes in which party youths were reportedly assaulted in Mbare under the full view of Mbare MP Tendai Savanhu for reportedly supporting the appointment of Grace to the top women post.

Midzi immediately responded by denying the claims, and offered Grace a political home, but not before some skirmishes that resulted in the assault of party members for allegedly supporting the rise of Grace.

But after Harare provincial youth chairperson Godfrey Gomwe pleaded with Mugabe to rein in party bigwigs who were victimising the youths for endorsing Grace, Mugabe breathed fire, threatened to deal with the chaos building in the party over the elevation of his wife.

For Mugabe, who had left people guessing on whether he supported his wife's grand entry into politics, his ranting at Harare International Airport all, but confirmed Grace was not operating without her husband's approval.

"I want to hear why she (Grace) should leave Harare, going where? I would also want to know where the emperor of Harare got his powers from," he told supporters who braved the chilly weather to welcome him back from China.

"There must be that understanding that we are one in Zanu PF, it doesn't matter whether you are in Bulawayo, Mutare, or in Gweru, you should feel free, each part of the country in Zimbabwe is ours together. So that is what must guide us."