Economic meltdown is the real force behind Grace's dogged resolve to be president. By Wilbert Mukori

Grace Mugabe is not just as keen as mustard, she is desperate, to succeed her husband as the next president!

 

"All the rallies and meet-the-people campaigns, and her so-called donations are meant to create a certain image and prepare people for the inevitable announcement of her grand political ambitions,” said Dewa Mavhinga.

"Whoever says there is no bigger plan behind Grace's whirlwind campaigns across the country is lying with a straight face. This could very well be the establishment of a Mugabe dynasty, if the people of Zimbabwe allow it." Mavhinga is spot on there.

 

As Zimbabwe’s First Lady, Grace has enjoyed a privileged style for decades now and therefore giving it up would not be easy for her. So she will be keen as mustard to step up on the political ladder to become president and not down and because just another minister or worse! But it is the economic consequence of her stepping down the ladder that has fired her to fight for the top job!

Zimbabwe’s very turbulent economic situation has her worried sick; she knows that she and her family will need all the help they can get to survive let alone thrive and the only sure way to get that help is for her to be president. She is absolutely desperate to be president.

Zimbabwe's economic meltdown is real and even from the comfort of the presidential limo or helicopter it is impossible not to see the rot and decay everywhere and jaded look everywhere of years of stress, poverty, hunger, hopelessness and despair. Stress, poverty, etc. used to be povo’s problems but not anymore; the ruling elite are suffering too.

It was in the papers the other day that Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri's property will be auctioned to pay off her debts. She is not the only Zanu PF Chef in financial trouble. The days of cheap bank loans, generous salaries and allowances, etc. are over and the Chefs are feeling the ill effects.

Grace Mugabe may be naive but not that naive not to know that her business interests have benefited from all direct and indirect help she has been getting because she is Mugabe's wife. In the present economic climate when the government is failing to pay PSMAS the money it has collected from members there is no doubt all the monetary subsidies to her will stop that day she seizes to be First Lady. She will well and truly on the slippery slope of stress, poverty, etc.

Even if she has money and business interests outside Zimbabwe in countries with very stable economies; she cannot be sure of holding on to her wealth in the face of the country’s deepening economic crisis. In a country that is failing to supply something as basic as clean it impossible to justify why someone should be allowed to keep their ill-got wealth whilst the people from whom the wealth was looted are forced to drink dirty water!

The only way Grace Mugabe can be sure of at least keeping a semblance of her privileged lifestyle in Zimbabwe’s chaotic and ever deepening economic crisis is by keeping Mugabe in power as long as possible and taking over from him at the next opportune moment. She has no other option.

To accomplish her objective of keeping the presidency in the family Grace has had no choice but to throw all caution to the wind and go for it, proof of just how desperate she is too be president.

Her first challenge was to muscle everyone in Zanu PF with presidential ambitions out of the way. The front runner last year was Joice Mujuru and Grace did not mess around but went straight for the jugular vein! As soon as Mujuru was booted out of the party Grace set her sight on VP Mnangagwa.

In her effort to get rid of her challengers for the presidency, Grace has forced Zanu PF papered over cracks to develop into gapping chasms. Many people have argued, with good supporting evidence, that the booting out of Mujuru has fatally damaged Zanu PF’s electoral chances of successfully rigging the next elections. Mujuru still has too many supporters, some of whom are still Zanu PF card carrying members, who are familiar with Mugabe’s vote rigging tactics for him to get away with it.

Grace has no choice but go after VP Mnangagwa too but she is only weakening Zanu PF even further.

Grace’s second challenge is winning the national vote. Even if she managed to emerge as the Zanu PF top dog, with the party unified behind her she will not be out of the wood yet. The country's worsening economic situation has brought back echoes of 2008. The people then were so desperate for change Zanu PF was forced to use wanton violence to force them to vote for Mugabe. Zanu PF will be forced to use similar extreme measures again.

History has the habit of repeating itself; if Zanu PF uses wanton violence in the next elections the whole world will, as happened in 2008, refused to accept the result as a true reflection of the democratic wishes of the people. Instead of being given the option of the GNU soft-landing Zanu PF will be forced to implement the democratic reforms followed by fresh free and fair elections.

Zimbabweans will go out of their way to make sure they vote in the fresh elections just to be absolutely sure Zanu PF is trounced!

Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown is the driving force behind Grace’s desperate efforts to ensure she becomes president after Mugabe. The irony is it was the 35 years of gross mismanagement, of rampant corruption and lawlessness and greed that has triggered the economic meltdown. If economic meltdown has made Grace is desperate to be president it has made the people even more desperate to see an end to Zanu PF dictatorship.

Grace and her husband can scheme all they want, there is no way either of them will win the next elections! People will never be fooled by Grace’s political gimmick of missing her chocolate soufflé desert “in sympathy with the starving millions”; mocked sympathy will not fill an empty belly! People do not want these rally hand-outs where only a tiny number get enough for a day and starve the rest of the year. People want jobs and a future!