Grace Mugabe steals show in Victoria Falls

First  Lady Grace Mugabe was the runaway star at the official opening of the post-congress Zanu-PF's conference yesterday - with wild cheering and whistling punctuating the air each time her name was mentioned.

Even though the increasingly influential women's league boss did not have an opportunity to address her gathered legion of party admirers, she was by far the most popular politician at the conference other than President Robert Mugabe himself.

The first lady cleared eclipsed vice presidents Phelekezela Mphoko and Emmerson Mnangagwa, and other top officials.

From Mugabe himself to Mphoko, and other party bigwigs, they all chanted "Pamberi naDoctor Amai" (Forward with Grace) to deafening applause from delegates. Mnangagwa, who was chairing the get-together, was the only official who spoke and did not chant the popular slogan.

Indeed, speaker after speaker extravagantly acknowledged her potent presence, which she beamingly lapped in - with most delegates observing that no one with ambitions to lead Zanu-PF could afford to cross her path now.

If there was any reminder that she too is mortal, it was the presence of "suspended" women's league spokesperson Monica Mutsvangwa at the jamboree - who danced and punched the air wildly as she responded to slogans, as if to remind the first lady that the women's league's recent decision to expel her was not necessarily a death sentence in itself.

In his opening remarks, Mugabe once again shamed Zanu-PF propagandists and hangers-on who routinely and crassly want to argue implausibly that there are no serious divisions in the ruling party, observing emphatically that there was massive factional tension within the former liberation movement - imploring warring factions to bury the hatchet and work for everyone's good.

He also, once again, savaged over-ambitious party leaders that he said were fanning factionalism in the ruling party.
"We always hear that some people support individuals, that they support so and so ... we don't want to hear that. We want you all to rally behind our leaders, our vice presidents, president and other people in the party," Mugabe said.

He warned that the conference would deal with such wayward behaviour among party supporters.

"When the time for a congress comes, we are all going to resign before elections to choose the new leaders. That is how the leaders are to be elected.

"Right now we are far away from the congress and some elements in the party are calling for others to be removed from their positions. We say pasi nemi (down with you)," Mugabe said.

The conference is happening at a time that party followers are anticipating the emergence of a clear successor to the increasingly frail nonagenarian, and amid vicious jockeying for power between supporters of Mnangagwa and ambitious party Young Turks known as the Generation 40.

Amid all this, the powerful women's league is agitating for a return of the women's quota system within the party — a call that has the support of the majority of provinces, as well as the youth league.

Most delegates who spoke to the Daily News yesterday said it was almost a fait accompli that the call would be "heeded and adopted" by the party's next politburo meeting — a move that would put spanners in the works of Mnangagwa's mooted presidential aspirations.

In anticipation of factional disturbances and chaos, delegates were subjected to thorough searches yesterday, with delegates' accreditation cards also bar-coded, amid fears that some unregistered party followers bussed from as far as Harare and who are allegedly staying in Livingstone, across the mighty Zambezi in Zambia, would cause problems.