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It’s only two months since the First Lady, Cde Grace Mugabe’s formal entry into active politics. Before their respective congresses in August, the Women and Youth leagues invited her to lead the former. At its August 7-10 congress in Harare, the Zanu-PF Youth League nominated her for possible appointment at the party’s elective congress in December as Secretary for the Women’s League. A few days later, the Women’s League also nominated her. She has accepted both official nominations which means that she is now a politician.
Already, the First Lady has distinguished herself as a forthright politician who not only speaks for the masses but also tackles important themes that are rarely spoken about.
Not many people of her standing speak as pointedly and forcefully as she does about some Zanu-PF leaders who refuse to denounce MDC-T publicly, those who secretly associate with the British and Americans plotting against their party and President Mugabe yet pretend to be 100 percent behind him. She speaks openly about those who chant Zanu-PF slogans brandishing open palms, those who seek to disperse authority from the President to the presidium and some police officers who raid vendors to confiscate their vegetables which they then eat at their homes. At her second rally in Gweru on Monday, she talked about two senior Zanu-PF leaders who stole seed maize she donated at her first rally in Chinhoyi last Thursday, declaring she would ensure they return it.
She is correct to say that some ruling party bigwigs are taking advantage of President Mugabe’s enduring patience and understanding by thinking that he is unaware of their schemes simply because he has not come down hard on them.
“We see them dancing kongonya here as if they love the President, they are good at chanting slogans in public, but deep in their hearts they don’t like him,” said the First Lady in Chinhoyi.
“They are busy at night plotting his ouster, claiming he is old, hence he must go so that they can take over. President Mugabe is a very nice man, we know what they are plotting, but because he is God-fearing, he just prays for them. We know what happened in 2008, but the President did not attack anyone, he just knelt down and prayed. We have heard a lot about some people in the leadership receiving money from the US to buy voters. The president knows it all, but he just keeps quiet and prays. He is a strong man, but what we’re doing is being unfair to him. We’re causing a lot of stress on him.”
Her views clearly resonate with many of us yet they are seldom raised at the high level with the forcefulness she has been doing. We hail her frankness and wish her well as she begins her political career.
The First Lady addressed her first solo rally in Chinhoyi, followed it up with another well-subscribed one at the Zanu-PF Convention Centre in Gweru. She was expected to speak in Harare yesterday. Today she is likely to be in Masvingo.
Prior to this, she used to speak at Zanu-PF rallies but her role was limited to showing her support for the President and the party.
President Mugabe needs everyone’s undivided support. We are encouraged that someone as close to him as the First Lady has come on stage at this key moment when some Zanu-PF leaders, who must render total support for him against bigger, external threats, are scheming around his position and cannot wait to succeed him.
As we salute the First Lady for her strong entry into active politics, her honesty and what promises to be a tough approach to business, we hope that those in the party who were getting carried away will grasp her message and come back to their senses.
They must moderate their ambitions, shun corruption, rededicate themselves to the founding principles and values of the revolution, and diligently serve their party and president.
At the same time, the First Lady’s anticipated appointment to lead the Women’s League, that with it a seat in the Politburo, should be decisive in overcoming factionalism.
Divisions expose the party to external threats, the factions must know. A party like Zanu-PF which has been targeted by Europe and America for so long, and surviving regardless, cannot afford the internal contradictions that have come out so openly in recent months. It is these divisions that its powerful foreign opponents can exploit to weaken it, thus boost their broader quest to completely destroy the party. Should that happen the party’s revolutionary, pro-people policies and programmes would be reversed.
Online Reporter