Grace Mugabe's hate-filled witch hunting is worse than Ebola

When Ebola strikes, Zimbabwe will be unprepared and without the necessary resources which are being daily squandered by Mr Mugabe's wife, Grace Marufu's stage-managed so-called 'Thank You' rallies.

Whereas, the spread of Ebola can be prevented and controlled, as Nigeria proved, the full cost of Ms  Grace Marufu's hate-filled witch-hunting campaign is being kept as a top secret in a country that is on the verge of a cholera outbreak.

It is common knowledge that Grace's apprenticeship for tyranny is an expensive and dangerous project that should be stopped immediately, before plunging the country into chaos worse than that caused by Ebola.  You can easily bring Ebola under control if it breaks out but not a civil war or an uprising.


What Grace is doing is criminal in the sense that she is being allowed to go around the country of whipping up emotions, fanning hatred and threatening violence which begs the question why she has not been at least warned about the potential for national instability.

Grace's unprecedented, well choreographed and rehearsed foul speeches to rented crowds have featured brutal attacks on the person of Vice President Joice Mujuru and party secretary for administration Didymus Mutasa, who has endured very damaging slogans targeted at him.

One wishes if Robert Mugabe could call his wife to order before hell breaks loose, unless he plans to abdicate to Singapore.

By denigrating the country's vice president, although without naming her, but everyone knows she is attacking Mrs Joice Mujuru, a distinguished war veteran of Zimbabwe's liberation struggle, Grace is contradicting herself as 'a caring mother'.

For example in Bindura she said: "soon we are going to baby dump your faction leader, come congress in December." What caring mother would advise children to resort to baby dumping as Grace did at that rally?

Mrs Mujuru is supposedly protected by Zimbabwe's constitution and various criminal and civil laws, but is being left at the mercy of Ms Marufu whose credentials in Zanu-PF are as non-existent as those of her spokesperson who deserted guerrilla training in Tanzania.

Grace is spoiling for a bloody civil war in Zimbabwe to protect her ill-gotten wealth and of course her children. Whatever promise of national healing that had started to take shape painfully in the face of Zanu-pf obstructions and her husband's selfish grip on power.
Grace has been going around the country pretending to be on a good will mission but you don't need to be a rocket scientist to know the real purpose and strategic timing of her dangerous campaign.

While in Gwanda,  Grace threatened to spill the blood of anyone who tries to take away a farm she seized during Zimbabwe's chaotic and bloody land reform programme.


Interestingly, Ms Marufu's witch-hunt is evident in her tactic of so-called "mini unity accords" during which she orders her supposedly rival "faction" leaders to come to the high table at her rally for a humiliating "reconciliation".  Obviously, not all oblige. Kaukonde refused and she was not amused.

In order to find out if her audience belongs to her faction, Grace has ironically been asking them if there "is any factionalism" which her euphemism for the Mujuru faction.

In Bulawayo she said: "Ndambobvunza kuti pane factionalism here zvikanzi hakuna. Inhema dzekupedzisira. Ndidzonhema dzisiri kudiwa nevanhu idzodzo. Nhema chaidzo (I asked if ever there is factionalism in the province and they said no. But those are lies loathed by the people)."

Grace's hypocrisy and lack of tact and political experience have been as evident as her desperation for high office. For example as people walked on her in Bulawayo, she ranted: "You are disorganised, Bulawayo. This is disrespectful. We are about to finish. Sit down, where are those women going? Anyone who doesn't sit down will not receive the farming inputs I brought." And she has the guts to say others are corrupt!

Unfortunately, the media has not sufficiently exposed the corrupt practice of bribing people with farming inputs to attend rallies, a tactic which seems behind the thousands who reportedly attended the so-called "tsunami rallies".

While Ms Marufu's rantings should give opposition parties a rare opportunity to squarely challenge the former government typist, for some reason they have not exploited the chance despite its immense benefits ahead of 2018. Sadly there is a tragic conspiracy of silence and acquiescence with muted voices here and there.

Of course, no sane person shares Madhuku's suggestion that Grace will be assassinated seconds after Mugabe's death, which nobody knows when nor desire as it would be irresponsible and criminal and unnecessary.

What is stopping Zimbabwe's opposition parties from staging their own rallies to counter Grace Marufu's poisonous campaign e.g. at Rufaro Stadium, Gwanda Stadium, Gwanzura Stadium, National Stadium, Masvingo Stadium, Mkoba Stadium, Barbaourfields Stadium, Rudhaka Stadium, Sakubva Stadium, just to mention a few?

By doing nothing about Grace's irresponsible,  provocative, and wasteful campaign, opposition parties are failing in their duty of care to the people of Zimbabwe, by denying them a peaceful alternative means for expressing themselves on the Mugabe's dangerous plan to install a family dynasty while there is still time.

Instead, opposition leaders are at each other's throat, while Grace Mugabe is figuratively "urinating" on the people of Zimbabwe. They should not feign ignorance of how the country sleep walked into inevitable social and political unrest.
 
PS: Grace Mugabe nee Marufu cannot have obtained a Doctorate degree from UZ in three months i.e. July to September – even online. It's impossible. She should do the right thing. Tell the truth.

Clifford is a doctoral researcher at London South Bank University. Email: mashiric@lsbu.ac.uk