Is Grace Mugabe in charge now?

Grace Mugabe's flaunting of her political influence on Wednesday after she revealed that the country's two VPs took instructions from her, analysts and opposition parties were critical of her saying she was reinforcing concerns first raised by Jabulani Sibanda that she was now Zimbabwe's de facto leader.

What is of concern to most analyst and other political parties is that this does not reflect well with the Constitution as the First Lady has no official government position.

It is becoming increasingly clear that President Robert Mugabe's wife, Grace, is very influential behind the scenes and may as well be positioning herself to take over from her husband whenever he finally goes given her growing power in her family, Zanu-PF and government circles, ruling party insiders say.

Senior Zanu-PF officials say Mugabe's attack on his two appointed vice-presidents Emmerson Mnangagwa and Phelekezela Mphoko at the party's Youth League assembly meeting last weekend over factionalism and succession, and Grace's boastful disclosures she controls and set the agenda for them, show a plot could be underway to ensure a dynastic successor takes over.