Harare -
Grace Mugabe is strongly tipped to be appointed to her husband’s cabinet this week as minister of women’s affairs, a post not filled during last week’s cabinet reshuffle, when some ministers loyal to sacked vice-president Joice Mujuru, lost their positions.
President Robert Mugabe, 90, sacked eight cabinet ministers but chose their replacements from a hard core of Zanu-PF loyalists, most of whom have been in the cabinet, or in various senior government posts, during Zimbabwe’s economic decline over the past 17 years.
Previous women’s affairs minister, Oppah Muchinguri, a former girlfriend of the president, was moved from the women’s affairs post to a more senior job in the cabinet responsible for higher and tertiary education, after she stepped down from her women’s league post to make way for Grace.
Grace Mugabe, 49, was the key player, supported by the state media, in the humiliation of Mujuru, 59, over the last four months when she was accused by the First Lady of corruption and plotting to assassinate her husband.
The weekly Independent newspaper said on Friday that Grace was now “running the show”.
Last Saturday on the final day of Zanu-PF’s sixth congress, Grace intervened during a long speech by the president and passed him a note. Mugabe sheepishly joked to delegates: “My wife has written a note. She says I’m talking too much. That’s how I am treated even at home, so I must listen.”
- Sunday Independent