By Herbert Moyo, Johannesburg
FIFTY-TWO year-old Zimbabwe’s South African-born First Lady Grace Mugabe could not have chosen a more auspicious time than the month of August to invade South Africa and eviscerate one of the most significant legacies of women of that country from the fifties.
It should be common knowledge by now that Grace allegedly assaulted 20 year-old South African model, Gabriella Engels, whose crime was apparently to be found in the company of the First Lady’s two sons, Robert Jnr (25) and Chatunga (21).
The incident which reportedly left Engels with gashes to her forehead and scalp, occurred at about 9pm on Sunday night at a trendy Sandton hotel in Johannesburg.
Grace subsequently handed herself to South African police on Tuesday morning amid expectations that she would appear in court in Randburg on Tuesday afternoon.
“She is not under arrest because she co-operated, and handed herself over to police,” Police Minister, Fikile Mbalula, told the South African media on Tuesday.
It occurred during the widely publicised Women’s Month which is celebrated in August as a tribute to the more than 20 000 South African women who marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on 9 August 1956 protesting against the extension of pass laws to women in that country.
At this stage, South Africans whose politicians, including the incumbent President Jacob Zuma and his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki who have shielded her husband President Mugabe from international scrutiny for alleged human rights violations, just got a taste of her unconventional behaviour which Zimbabweans have grown accustomed to.
Not surprisingly, South African politicians including presidential hopeful Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who have been very vocal about violence against women have all been mum so far about the incident.
And as she has proved time and again, Grace is not the person for such niceties and political correctness.
It’s only been a month since she celebrated her 52nd birthday, an event that always prompts a deluge of epithets from cabinet ministers and heads of state entities who take the art of bootlicking to new levels.
It would have been comical had Zimbabwe not been in the throes of a tragic socio-economic crisis.
Always, the state media marks the occasion with newspaper supplements where government officials and state entities fall over each other, variously describing Grace as “an astute businesswoman”, “a philanthropist”, “a visionary” “a unifier” or the “woman who conquered Africa” among other descriptions.
“You are pacesetter for Zimbabwean women through your entrepreneurial robustness that has urged on fellow women to think outside defined parameters,” said one advert from the Bindura University of Science (BUS).
Equally, and without the slightest hint of irony, Midlands State University officials have previously said they “continue to draw inspiration from your exemplary and commendable achievements in the business sector as evidenced by the positive impact that your business ventures are making on the Zimbabwean community in line with ZimAsset national aspirations.”
The business venture in question — the multi-million-dollar Alpha Omega dairy business, for long touted as a model of success following the country’s controversial land reform programme — has been anything but successful as it has struggled under the weight of debt, mismanagement and misappropriation of funds.
In 2014, Grace revealed to wives of traditional chiefs that Alpha Omega owes banks over US$20 million that was used to kick-start operations.
Back in October 2015, while addressing guests at a family function in Mhondoro, President Mugabe expressed his frustration over looting and corruption at the company.
“I decided to start a dairy business,” Mugabe said.
“See what was happening: nobody can tell us where the money is. Some (employees) did accounts, but prefer not to follow proper accounting procedures to hide their thievery. We have hired auditors from Ernst & Young and what they are unearthing is shocking.”
Last year the business plunged to new lows when products like yoghurt and ice-cream disappeared from supermarket shelves as the company failed to meet production targets.
This is the same business which MSU and BUS fell over each other to laud Grace about.
Given a choice, it is unlikely that these and other struggling state entities like Air Zimbabwe, PSMAS, NetOne, CAAZ and ZESA Holdings would have taken up expensive acres of space to praise Grace considering their precarious financial situations.
They, however, as observed by political commentator Dumisani Nkomo, have to demonstrate their allegiance to the growing Grace Personality Cult “which springs from widely held perceptions that she controls her husband President Mugabe and is effectively running the country.”
“Therefore, all these officials and state entities find it necessary despite the financial difficulties to fall over each other in massaging the ego of the lady perceived to be the actual ruler in the country,” Nkomo said.
Grace is complementing Mugabe in growing the First Family personality cult.
Over the years Mugabe has surrounded himself with sycophants who will do anything to stroke his ego. After all, this is a path well-trodden by dictators like Adolf Hitler, Mao Tse Tung, Joseph Stalin and North Korea’s Kim Jong-un over the centuries.
The Mugabes probably stole a leaf from the copybook of their role model North Korean ally who was treated like a demi-god.
The late leader Kim Jong-il had his life history re-written as part of the personality cult to state that he was born in 1942 in a secret military camp on Baekdu Mountain, where his father was waging guerrilla warfare against the imperialist Japanese.
That mountain now enjoys the kind of religious significance in North Korea that is often reserved for the likes of Mount Sinai.
This is despite the fact that official records of the former Soviet Union government show that Kim was actually born in a refugee camp near Khabarovsk in 1941.
“From these humble beginnings, the exaggerations of Kim’s achievements grow rapidly,” the Telegraph reported in 2011.
“He was walking at three weeks and talking at eight weeks. He wrote six operas in three years at university, as well as no fewer than 1 500 books. He is also credited with 11 holes-in-one and a 38-under par the first time he picked up a golf club and is equally a genius at architecture and directing movies.”
Not surprisingly Grace’s history has been re-imagined and presented to portray a heroic larger-than-life character whose journey to greatness began when she returned to rural Chivhu from her birthplace of Benoni in the Eastern Rand South Africa.
Like the North Korean leaders, Zimbabweans are often shown images of Grace surrounded by adoring children suggesting that she is indeed a loving mother of the nation.
She was even awarded a questionable PhD by her cronies at the University of Zimbabwe. Perhaps these images would have struck a chord and the public would have given her the benefit of the doubt but her conduct since her entry into politics in 2014 as secretary of the Zanu PF women’s league has done her no favours.
Far from being the unifier that the state media calls her, Grace’s entry into mainstream politics signalled the beginning of probably the biggest purges in Zanu PF since its formation in 1963.
Her unsubstantiated and reckless allegations set the tone for the dismissal of former vice-president Joice Mujuru and several bigwigs for purportedly plotting the ouster and assassination of Mugabe. Now she is leading a campaign to dislodge Mujuru’s successor Emmerson Mnangagwa who has also been accused of harbouring ambitions of taking over the presidency from her husband.
And as her latest reported attack on Engels shows, there has been little if any evidence to suggest that Grace is the caring and loving mother so glowingly described by the state media.
Rather her rallies which are beamed live on state television have shown Grace to be an emotionally-charged and hysterical woman given to salacious gossip and crude expletive-laden language not fit for a First Lady or a person who aspires for universal acclaim.
“I am not Mugabe’s b****,” Grace disgracefully thundered while addressing a rally in Chiweshe in February 2016. Mugabe has also complained about her behaviour in a leaked 41-minute audio tape.
“Once she decides things should be done in a certain way, then that’s it. You can argue and shout at each other to no avail. I end up surrendering, giving in because we cannot continue the slanging match. What will the children say when we continue insulting each other,” Mugabe said of Grace.
True to form, the ruling Zanu PF’s communist style propaganda machine has gone into overdrive, attempting to create the impression that it was rather Grace who was at the receiving end of a brutal attack by Engels.
But no matter how much they try to sanitise her image, she will always find a way of besmirching it again.
Zimbabwean government officials, struggling state entities and the Pravda-like state media could do well to heed the late 1990s witty Texas governor Ann Richards who famously remarked that “you can put lipstick on a hog (pig) and call it Monique, but it is still a pig.”
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