The Sunday Mail
In the past three months Amai Mugabe has endeared herself to progressive Zimbabweans with her grasp of socio-economic issues.
First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe will be officially endorsed as the ZANU-PF Women’s League boss at the ruling party’s National People Congress this week, amid a growing appreciation by many of how she has changed dynamics in the revolutionary political outfit and in national politics.
With the endorsement, Amai Mugabe will become a member of the Politburo, ZANU-PF’s most powerful body, thereby thrusting her onto the political frontline.
Now that the First Lady has come to the party, Zimbabweans will expect a lot from Amai Mugabe, whose nomination for the Women’s League top post on July 25 excited Zimbabweans, who immediately saw her as the panacea to the internal power struggles that have rocked the ruling party.
The impact of her entry into mainstream politics, given her closeness to the President and capacity to deal with social issues affecting the majority, cannot be over emphasised.
Already, she has changed ZANU-PF’s culture by ushering in a new dispensation of naming and shaming those who are offside. Such matters are no longer whispered in dark corners – people have been emboldened to speak out against what is wrong.
Factionalism, which has threatened to rip the ruling party apart, had remained a speculative issue until the Amai Mugabe stepped onto the main stage.
No one dared to lift the lid on the boiling issue, until the First Lady named and shamed the perpetrators during her whirlwind “Meet the People” tours held countrywide in October.
It was because of the First Lady’s no-holds barred condemnation of factionalism that the real drivers of the scourge were publicly exposed.
Her nomination, according to Cde Oppah Muchinguri – the outgoing Women’s League boss – was spurred by the desire to stem factionalism that sunk deep roots in the ruling party.
“Factionalism chinhu chinofanira kukondemwa in the strongest terms. Hachiende, taneta nenyaya yefactionalism. Unoona vanhu vachiti VaMugabe tinovada inhema. Last night vaiti vachembera.
“Ngatidzidzei kumira pachokwadi, kumirira nguva yako kana yakwana uchaona vanhu vachiti vanokuda ne mabasa ako,” Amai Mugabe declared in her maiden “Meet the People” rally at Chinhoyi Stadium on October 2.
Six days later, at City Sports Centre in Harare, the First Lady vowed to change the face of politics in the country, and true to her word, ZANU-PF has witnessed some breathtaking developments even before her official endorsement by the Congress.
As such, much more will be expected once she formally takes up her position.
There is no doubt that ZANU-PF’s internal strife, fanned by those with intentions of toppling President Mugabe through unconstitutional means just a year after a resounding electoral victory, has threatened economic prospects when the ruling party should instead be focusing on Zim-Asset and livelihoods.
The party factional heavyweights have spent the better part of the last decade plotting the President’s downfall while neglecting the day-to-day issues affecting the ordinary Zimbabwean.
Consequently, Amai Mugabe’s timely entrance into mainstream politics has ruffled the feathers as she has delved into spheres previously regarded as taboo. And all of a sudden, a much-needed self-introspection within ZANU-PF has been triggered.
The cushy culture of impunity that had been established by corrupt factionalists in the upper echelons of the party has been rattled and ordinary people – many of whom struggle to get by – now await the arrests of those who feathered their nests by hook and by crook.
“Chokwadi chakangonaka and hachiputse hukama,” Amai Mugabe has always said in the weeks leading to what is surely an historic Congress.
The First Lady’s exposure of Vice President Joice Mujuru’s alleged corruption and thirst for power, as well as the dressing down of greedy leaders like Ray Kaukonde has been as refreshing as it has been necessary.
She told war veterans at her children’s home in Mazowe in October, “We know her (VP Mujuru’s) capabilities and we know those who can reach President Mugabe’s levels and she is not one of them.
“Saka ini zvangu maonero angu handina kuona vakakodzera kutomboitungamira nyika iyi. One, she survives on extortion and does not want to work for herself.
“Two, she wants to grab power from the President illegally.
“Three, all minerals you declare that they are yours and four, you are incompetent.”
Would we have ever known before Congress that there were people plotting to assassinate the President? Would we have known that the VP wanted to use provincial chairmen to humiliate the President just a year after he led the party to a crushing electoral victory?
Now we know that no one is above the law and the nation will be closely watching the police to see what they will do.
“You cannot underestimate the positive impact her elevation has brought. Dr Mugabe has a responsibility being the First Lady. Her closeness to the most powerful person in the country, the President, makes Dr Mugabe capable of dealing with some pertinent issues affecting both the ruling party and the nation at large.
“Fine, she has drawn criticism from some sections, but let us try and look for the positives she has brought to the country’s politics at large,” says Dr Lawson Hikwa, a political analyst.
Amai Mugabe carries the hopes of many, as she begins her mainstream political journey and the expectation is that she will not take her foot off the pedal.
In the past three months she has endeared herself to progressive Zimbabweans with her grasp of socio-economic issues.
Amai Mugabe has challenged inconsistencies in terms of service delivery, spoken of equitable land distribution to war veterans, touched on the plight of the street vendor and the cross-border traders and has shown that both her head and her heart are in the right place.
We look forward to more of the same.
