Grace Mugabe - The First Lady from Hell

The on-going saga surrounding the multi-million lavish lifestyle of the First Lady, Grace Mugabe, clearly shows that her greediness has reached alarming and unacceptable levels as she has become the biggest looter of the country's natural resources while the ordinary people who should be benefitting are suffering as the economy falls.

As Grace abuses state resources to fund a glamourous lifestyle, the broke government and is failing to pay civil servants their 2016 bonuses.

While millions of Zimbabweans are going through one of the worst financial hardships since Independence in 1980, Grace, her husband and family are still on holiday in the Far East at a reported obscene cost of $6 million.

The extravagant lifestyle of Grace, who is currently embroiled in an ugly and embarrassing court battle with a Lebanese businessman over a botched $1.4 million diamond ring, reads like a fairytale in a country where the majority of the citizens do not know where their next meal will come from.

Grace, a compulsive shopper, is also using dwindling state coffers to pay $42 000 a month for rentals at an upmarket 10 bed-roomed apartment in Dubai in the Middle East.

During her frequent but pointless foreign travels with her husband, Grace, has been reported to spend thousands of dollars buying expensive clothes and jewellery from funds illegally raided from the Treasury, proving that she is now the Queen of Corruption -- a First Lady from Hell for the people of Zimbabwe.

It is no wonder that due to her lavish spending using state resources, her husband, Robert Mugabe as the President of Zimbabwe has failed to reign in corrupt Cabinet ministers as the same ministers are following what the First Family is doing in looting the country's resources.

It is interesting to note that as a First Lady, Grace Mugabe, has managed to outdo other first wives in looting their countries' resources to fund personal lifestyles.  Some of these materialistic first ladies were; Imelda Marcos of the Philippines; Marie Antoinette, France; Mary Todd Lincoln of the USA; Nancy Reagan, the USA and the current Syrian First Lady, Asma Al-Assad.

Marcos, is the widow of Ferdinand Marcos, the former President of the Philippines.  During her time, as the First Lady, she was notorious for traveling the world, constantly adding to her thousand-plus shoe collection, which included designers such as Givenchy, Dior, Chanel, and Ferragamo, while the people of the Philippines were living in extreme poverty.

On one trip to New York, Marcos purchased $3.5 million Michelangelo painting, $2.5 million in jewellery, and over $19,000 on nightgowns.

Al-Assad is leading a glamorous life against a background of Syria's on-going political unrest. The wife of Syrian dictator Bashar Al-Assad, she has become known as the "modern-day Marie Antoinette" for her overly-lavish lifestyle. One report highlights how recently Assad spent as much as $420,984 in London.

Assad also has a penchant for expensive shoes and at one time bought a pair of crystal-encrusted high heels for $6 000 while her country continues to go up in flames.

Antoinette (1755-1793), while France was struggling financially during the French Revolution, she enjoyed spending government money on expensive fashion, jewellery and outrageous parties.  She was known as "Madame Deficit or Mrs Debt" and would spend copious amounts of money and developed a gambling problem, reportedly losing $1.5 million in one year.

Todd Lincoln (1818 - 1882), the wife of President Abraham Lincoln, enjoyed frivolous spending and ended up comprising her husband's presidency by sharing government secrets in exchange for personal loans.    
During a recession, Reagan spent frivolously and was nicknamed "Queen Nancy,". She also enjoyed expensive clothing, which many felt was inappropriate considering the economic state of America at the time. She was criticised for borrowing designer clothing -- as gifts in exchange for exposure, and was warned by the White House counsel to quit her habit.

However, the above first ladies were or are from countries whose economies are 20 times more developed than the Zimbabwean economy.

In Zimbabwe, the situation is desperate with widespread poverty and 95% of the people unemployed. The remaining functioning companies have scaled down and are using archaic equipment, which makes their products uncompetitive.

However, for the First Family's close relatives to survive under such harsh economic challenges, Grace Mugabe has ensured that her son-in-law, Simba Chikore, is appointed to a senior position at Air Zimbabwe, a state enterprise.   

Chikore's brother, Derrick, was in turn awarded a $250 million Dema Diesel Power Plant tender under unclear and controversial circumstances by the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA).

It is, therefore, sad that Mugabe has only managed to sink the country deeper into economic turmoil characterised by high unemployment, hopelessness and fatalism while his wife continues with her compulsive shopping and foreign travel.

#TogetherAnotherZimbabweIsPossible

PDP Communications Department