Mugabe still spending big amid poverty

President Robert Mugabe and his ministers in the Office of the President and Cabinet are living large despite a stubborn economic crisis at a time government revenues are dwindling due to a shrinking tax base.

Figures from the 2015 budget statement show that much more is being spent funding Mugabe’s foreign trips compared to what is allocated to, say, economic ministries which should be spearheading the country’s economic revival efforts.This year, Mugabe’s office spent close to US$200 million, while economic ministries combined spent less than US$115m.

Actual figures of expenditure up to October 2014 outlined in the blue book presented by Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa a month ago show the President’s Office spent US$161,1m, of which US$32,6m was used on foreign trips.In 2014, the Office of the President’s administration and general expenditure up to the month of October totalled US$153,9m. The money was spent on goods and services, maintenance, unspecified programmes as well as employment costs. A further US$7,1m was spent on state residences.
Mugabe is known for globe-trotting even when the country is burning.

This year, he made several trips to Europe, the Far East and within Africa, gobbling millions at a time Treasury is hard-up.Mugabe attended the African Union (AU) summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in January where he was elected African Union Bureau vice-chair.In May he travelled to Singapore where a video of him entering a world-class private hospital, Gleneagles Parkway Cancer Centre, went viral largely because of his wife Grace and two bodyguards’ futile attempts to stop journalists from filming him. The visit to the hospital, which offers the best cancer treatment in the world, fuelled speculation on Mugabe’s health although government claimed he was only being treated for an eye ailment.

In the same month he travelled to South Africa where he attended South African President Jacob Zuma’s inauguration after the ANC’s electoral triumph, before flying out to Dubai for a series of diamond meetings.
In June, Mugabe headed for Bolivia to attend the 50th anniversary celebrations of the G77 group of developing nations that also includes China.He also flew to the Equatorial Guinea capital, Malabo, to attend the 23rd ordinary session of the AU.

Hardly two months later, Mugabe left for a state visit to China on a trip highly publicised for the “mega investment deals” signed that would bring relief to the Zimbabwean economy, but so far the country has not enjoyed any tangible benefits from the agreements.On his way back, he stopped over in Singapore for what was believed to be yet another medical check-up. However presidential spokesperson George Charamba said the stop-over was merely for re-fuelling purposes.

Mugabe also took a large entourage to the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September.
In October, he left for Rome where he attended a beatification ceremony for Pope Paul VI at the Vatican, while in November he was in Vienna, Austria, where he attended a conference on landlocked developing countries. He also attended an Africa-Turkey summit in Equatorial Guinea during the same month.
Mugabe and his wife were also at President Michael Sata’s burial in Lusaka, Zambia, in November.
The President and his family are currently on a one-month state-funded holiday in the Far East and are expected back on January 15.

He is accompanied by not more than 10 aides who are paid hefty allowances to be at his service during his annual holidays. The figures paid to the aides can amount to over US$15 000 each.Money spent on his foreign trips is far much more than what each economic ministry gets for the year.By end of the year, Mugabe’s office would have gobbled close to US$40m in foreign trips, according to 2014 figures, which makes the amounts allocated to economic ministries such as Industry and Commerce, Mines, Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Tourism pale in comparison. The figures dramatise government’s skewed priorities.

Up to October 2014, Mugabe had spent US$1,23m on domestic trips alone in addition to the US$32,6m.
According to the blue book, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce spent US$17,3m up to October, while Mines spent just US$2,5m, SMEs (US$2,6m), Tourism (US$2m), Energy and Power Development (US$1m) and Youth and Indigenisation (US$31,6m).For 2015, Chinamasa appropriated US$190m for the President’s Office, while Industry and Commerce is getting US$23m, Mines US$18,3m, Youth and Indigenisation US$43m, SMEs US$14,4m, Energy and Power Development US$10m and Tourism US$3m.

While economic ministries except Agriculture which received US$225m secured paltry budget allocations, social ministries were better supported. Health was allocated US$377m and Education US$919m. Lands got US$14m, Transport US$289m, Water US$197m and Justice US$123m.In addition to an inordinate allocation to the President’s Office, security ministries will gobble US$1bn of the 2015 budget. Defence was allocated US$380m and Home Affairs US$485m.

While Mugabe and his ministers spent US$32,6m on foreign junkets in 2014 up to October and US$1,2 on domestic travel, Chinamasa drastically reduced the travel allocation in 2015 to US$14,9m for foreign travel and US$700 000 for domestic trips.The administrative expenditure for the President’s Office for 2015 has been set at US$173,9m, while state residences were allocated US$9 876 000. In the midst of the extravagance, Zimbabwe is battling high unemployment estimated at over 80% and Chinamasa has been criss-crossing the globe in search of an elusive financial rescue package to kick-start the moribund economy.
As many as 400 workers are being retrenched on a weekly basis as companies continue to close, while service delivery has deteriorated.

According to sources at the Retrenchment Board, more than 6 020 workers have been retrenched from January to November 2014.ZANU PF has come up with an economic blueprint, ZimAsset, which requires about US$27 billion to fully implement between 2013 and 2018, but government has so far failed to mobilise the funds despite Mugabe and Chinamasa’s trips to China where they sought at least US$4bn in budgetary support.

Massive hunt underway for gunmen in Charlie Hebdo terror attack

Three masked gunmen shouting Islamic phrases stormed the offices of the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo Wednesday, killing 12 people, including the editorial director and four cartoonists whose work included controversial drawings of the prophet Mohammed.The gunmen, wearing hoods and armed with Kalashnikov automatic rifles, killed a receptionist to gain entrance to the offices in central Paris, then opened fire on a second-floor editorial meeting, killing 10 people, including eight journalists, prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters. A police officer was killed during their getaway.

Eight others were injured in the noon-time attack, including four who were in serious condition.
Molins said the attackers shouted "Allahu Akbar" ("God is great") and the "prophet is avenged," before fleeing in a stolen black Citroen, exchanging gunfire at least twice with police outside..
The dead included Stephane Charbonnier, the weekly newspaper's editorial director known as Charb, spokeswoman Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre of the Paris prosecutor's office confirmed.

Two officers were among those killed, including one who had been assigned as Charb's bodyguard after prior death threats against him, a police official told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

The second officer was shot execution style on the sidewalk. Dramatic video taken from a second floor balcony shows two gunmen opening fire on the officer who collapses on the sidewalk. As they move toward him, the officer, appearing to raise his hand, is shot and killed at point-blank range.
The assailants then circle back to their car, which was left in the middle of the street, calmly climb inside and drive away. Police said the car was later found abandoned in the nearby 19th district in north-eastern Paris, where they three stole a second car.

As they made their way into Paris's north-eastern 19th district the fugitives collided with another car and were later forced to abandon their vehicle near the Porte de Pantin on the French capital's ring road. They are still on the run. A massive manhunt operation is underway to apprehend them.

MDC salivates as ZANU PF implodes

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC is salivating at the prospects of contesting dozens of by-elections across the country should the brutal infighting within President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU PF party result in the booting out of up to 100 ruling party legislators from Parliament.

So bad has ZANU PF’s factional and succession wars become — which have so far claimed the political careers of dozens of its bigwigs, including former Vice President Joice Mujuru — that there are growing calls by the party’s hardliners to recall up to 100 legislators from Parliament who are perceived to be loyal to the deposed 59-year-old widow of revered liberation war hero, the late Solomon Mujuru.

And it is this “suicidal threat to liquidate all of Amai Mujuru’s allies”, as a senior Zanu PF official put it to the Daily News yesterday, that is giving — the MDC renewed hope of reversing its controversial electoral losses that it suffered last year, through by-elections.

Egged on by his quarrelsome wife Grace and erstwhile supporters of Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Mugabe has already fired 16 ministers and deputies, with well-placed sources in government suggesting strongly yesterday that permanent secretaries and service chiefs linked to Mujuru were in line for “similar treatment” when the nonagenarian returns from his holiday jaunt in the Far East next month.

“It’s not just MPs who will lose their jobs soon, permanent secretaries and a good number of service chiefs will receive similar treatment, a kind of new year present, when the president returns (from his holiday),” one of the sources told the Daily News.

As a result, the MDC said yesterday that it was ready to recover lost ground from Zanu PF which was in the throes of a debilitating power struggle as its ugly factional and succession fights crystallised into a monumental bloodbath that was seeing its most popular cadres thuggishly removed from office.

Obert Gutu, MDC spokesperson, said while his party was more eager on “completely fresh polls”, it would nevertheless participate in any by-elections that may be held, provided the political playing field was levelled.

“The fact that Zanu PF is disintegrating is now beyond disputation.

Zanu PF is going to recall no less than 100 of its Members of Parliament (MPs) as the factional fighting continues unabated.“The MDC will resoundingly win any election in Zimbabwe provided that such an election is free and fair,” Gutu said.

 

After being ambushed and stampeded into elections last year that were subsequently disputed, with the MDC alleging that Mugabe and Zanu PF had hired an Israeli company, Nikuv, to manipulate the process, the party is keen not to fall into the same trap.On the other hand, however, critics of the MDC doubt that the opposition party is in a position to capitalise on ZANU PF’s internal wars to wrestle power from the ruling party if the mooted by-elections do eventually take place.

 

These critics point out to the fact that the MDC, which was part of the inclusive government, failed to push for critical electoral reforms when it was in government from 2009 to 2013, and thus, are now not in a position to influence things from outside. However, Gutu said “unlike ZANU PF which is structurally disintegrating, the MDC recently held a highly successful elective congress that ushered into office a new and invigorated leadership.”

He added that the newly-elected MDC leadership was “already busy” strategising and plotting the way forward.“Zanu PF held a praise and worship ceremony that virtually created a political dinosaur in the form of Robert Mugabe. The MDC is quite capable of mobilising adequate financial and material resources to launch an effective election campaign.“We are the real deal and the only game in town,” Gutu said.

With up to 100 ZANU PF legislators facing the boot from Parliament, many legal experts say the most ideal scenario in such an event would be for the country to hold fresh elections altogether.Zanu PF’s Mashonaland Central province has already thrown the gauntlet in this endeavour  with new provincial chairperson Dickson Mafios saying nine legislators from the province should be recalled as they are allegedly supporters of Mujuru.

 

Other provincial chairpersons, who like Mafios assumed their positions in controversial fashion, have also been quoted in lapdog State media calling for the ejection of all Mujuru-linked legislators across the country.

“Right now we don’t know what they (MPs) are planning as they were loyal to Cde Mujuru,” Mafios recently told regional party structures.

“There are also rumours that they want to impeach President Mugabe if they unite with the MDC-T. So, right now we are not sure if their allegiance is towards the President and how loyal they are to Government,” he added. Meanwhile, some analysts also say it will bode well for any elections in future the fact that a mere three weeks into his tenure as Mugabe’s senior lieutenant, the knives are being sharpened against Mnangagwa as the Zanu PF faction that worked together to decimate Mujuru falls apart.

The Daily News learnt at the weekend that among Mnangagwa’s new rabid critics were erstwhile colleagues who played a critical role in annihilating Mujuru and her perceived sympathisers, a development that paved the way for his Phoenix-like rise from the political ashes to the presidium.

The sources said Mnangagwa’s former supporters were not just “peeved by his meteoric rise to the VP position” while they had to “make-do with scraps”, they were also upset that he had seemingly forgotten them and was allegedly acting as if he was now “the substantive head of State” while Mugabe was on holiday. As a result, some within the former anti-Mujuru grouping — particularly the so-called “Gang of Four” — now expeditiously wanted the tail of the party strongman cut.

The sources also claimed that it had not helped that the much-feared vice president had recently hosted parties and business persons in his home province, the Midlands, where some of the disaffected hardliners had not been invited to.Worse still, some of Mnangagwa’s most fervent followers, such as Psychomotor minister Josiah Hungwe, had made the fatal mistake of praising him overzealously at these gatherings — at worst a silly faux  pas that the hardliners had expediently latched on to, in their quest to cut the Vice President down to size.

 

“There are some within the victorious camp who feel that Mnangagwa in the first place did not deserve to be vice president after doing virtually nothing during the Mujuru demolition job where First Lady Grace Mugabe was used to turn President Mugabe against Amai Mujuru,” a well-placed source told the Daily News.

He said in particular the so-called “Gang of Four”— comprising senior party bigwigs Oppah Muchinguri, Jonathan Moyo, Patrick Zhuwao and Savior Kasukuwere — was allegedly working to undermine the VP and to “expose him as a power-hungry individual who is not fit to take over from Mugabe”. This, the source added, supposedly explained why Mnangagwa, just like what had happened to Mujuru, was coming under vicious attack in the lickspittle State media — “to discredit him as much as possible”.

Respected political commentator and University of Zimbabwe lecturer Eldred Masunungure recently told the Daily News that Mujuru’s ouster would not translate into Mnangagwa’s automatic ascendency to the highest seat in government.He said there were now two main factions in ZANU PF — namely the Gushungo (Mugabe’s totem) and Mnangagwa factions.“The other two factions coalesced against Mujuru and now that they have decimated that faction, the question is which one remains the most dominant?

“To me the Gushungo faction is now in control of the party because Mugabe knows that real power lies in the party, not in the government, so Mnangagwa may not be the winner after all,” Masunungure said.

Tsvangiral urged to engage Renewal 'rebels' in talks

 A senior MDC-T member has said the party is contemplating negotiations with the MDC Renewal Team ahead of the 2018 elections.The official said they have told party leader Morgan Tsvangirai to “swallow his pride” and engage their former colleagues who broke away in April this year.Former secretary general Tendai Biti walked out of the MDC-T party in protest over what he alleged were Tsvangirai’s dictatorial tendencies.

The MDC-T official who requested anonymity said Tsvangirai was planning to approach the Biti and Welshman Ncube-led entities for negotiations aimed at the reunification of the party.
“What he needs, at least, if he fails to lure Biti, is to get the Renewal Team’s endorsement, but we, at most ,need all the former MDC members to re-join the party and this is the path we are on,” said the official.
“The truth of the matter is that without unity we will not dislodge Zanu PF (from power) and history has taught us that.”

The official said they told Tsvangirai that he needed to “swallow his pride” and “come to terms with our colleagues” in the breakaway factions.
“Yes, we might have our differences but we told the President that we need to compromise,” he said.
“As I am telling you, at the weekend, the president talked to David Coltart and they discussed some of these issues.
“I cannot divulge what was agreed as the way forward because we might compromise the negotiations which are in the infancy stage.”
Contacted for comment, Jacob Mafume, the MDC Renewal Team spokesperson said: “There are a number of housekeeping issues that the MDC-T needs to address before they start any conversation.
“One of these issues regards the centralisation of power in one person. They need to start the conversation among themselves and see the trajectory on which they are going.

“If the old Tsvangirai, who was no stranger to democracy, resurrects we find no problems dealing with him, not the current Tsvangirai who is a copycat of Mugabe.”

The Daily News Zimbabwe under seige

The Daily News is facing a fresh State onslaught following false claims by Zimbabwe’s controversial First Lady Grace Mugabe late last year that former Vice President Joice Mujuru owns a 10 percent stake in the newspaper. 

Police have now obtained a court order, signed by Harare Provincial Magistrate Vakayi Douglas Chikwekwe on December 18, 2014, authorizing them to search and seize key documents pertaining to the ownership of the newspaper’s parent company Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe (ANZ).

Two police officers from the CID law and order section stormed the company’s Harare offices on Tuesday, armed with the warrant of seizure.One of the police details identified himself only as Superintendent Viera, while his colleague flatly refused to do so.

Grace first made the outrageous claim that Mujuru had bought a 10 percent shareholding in the country’s leading newspaper, the Daily News, while addressing one of her controversial “Meet the People” rallies at her vast Mazowe business hub in October last year.Addressing mainly war collaborators and youths, she accused Zimbabwe’s top-selling daily — that was violently and unjustly shut down by her husband’s government in September 2003, and which only returned to the news stalls in late March 2011  of publishing negative stories about her in the alleged service of Mujuru.

“Don’t be surprised to see negative stories of me every day. She (Mujuru) bought 10 percent of Daily News.

A week earlier, the quarrelsome and increasingly influential First Lady brazenly incited Zanu PF supporters against journalists from the newspaper at another rally held in Marondera, alleging that the country’s number one media brand was being used by factional leaders to wage a war against her.

Commenting light-heatedly at the time on Grace’s utterances, ANZ group editor Stanley Gama said he could only thank the First Lady for working so hard to market the popular daily “with such admirable zeal”.

“It is good to see that Mrs Mugabe continues to confirm very openly the fact that she, her husband and her family are avid readers of our paper, which is understandable given that hundreds of thousands of other Zimbabweans have long decided that our winning, credible journalism is the best on the market,” he said.

“While she is plainly wrong about Mrs Mujuru having shares in the Daily News, I must also, nevertheless, thank the First Lady for continuing to market our inimitable paper with such admirable zeal, particularly today where she did this without inciting violence against our staff,” Gama said.

But there was neither humour nor a festive spirit in the conduct of the two police officers who stormed the newspaper’s offices this week.The court order that they carried and which took a surprisingly long two weeks to effect, was given by Chikwekwe in terms of section 54(2)(b) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act.It directed the police to search for details of ANZ’s shareholders — information that is easily obtainable from the Registrar of Companies and from media regulation authorities.

Even more surprising, the warrant of seizure itself that they brought to the Daily News’s offices suggested that they already had this information anyway, rendering their mission almost pointless.Part of the warrant directed that ANZ directors “provide copies of list and details (particulars) of shareholders pertaining to the current allotment for ANZ and any other documents in relation to the said shareholder allotment”.

It further suggested, rather revealingly, that “an offence of criminal abuse of office as defined in section 174 of the Criminal law codification and Reform Act has been committed” — an allegation that Mujuru’s Zanu PF enemies have consistently directed at her.However, the warrant did not identify who the actual accused was, and was also silent on the nature and details of the alleged offence, just as it did not say where the offence was committed as well as the supposed beneficiary of the abuse.

Alec Muchadehama, the ANZ’s lawyer, said yesterday that the police details who visited the Daily News had flatly refused to shed light on the identity of not just the accused, but also the complainant.

“We are considering challenging the validity of the warrant,” he said.Although he had availed to authorities on Wednesday the “relatively insignificant” information that they wanted, Muchadehama had still objected to the police regarding the fact that the warrant of search and seizure did not identify anyone as the accused, “which essentially made it irregular and incapable of being executed”.

Meanwhile, lickspittle State media had already reported earlier this week that police were investigating “high-profile corruption cases” involving firms linked to Mujuru and had already allegedly “retrieved vital documents” that could form the core of the probe.“Sources said that much headway had been made in the last few days, but would not shed more light for fear of jeopardising the investigations.

“We are still in the process of searching the companies and we have found some of the evidence we need. We have not yet questioned her (Mujuru) but we will definitely do so,” a source allegedly told The Herald.

The paper also reported that it had it “on good authority” that findings had since been presented to senior officers at Police General Headquarters in Harare.“The matter is being handled as a sensitive issue and senior police officers are being briefed on a daily basis on the latest developments,” it said.

The team probing targeted companies was allegedly led by Chief Superintendent Luckson Mukazhi, who is said to have visited some of the companies to carry out the investigations.This followed the issuance of warrants by the courts to search companies allegedly linked to Mujuru and her other assets after she was fired from Government for behaviour inconsistent with the discharge of her duties as a public official.

The Daily News only came back to the market just over three years ago after it was unjustly shut down in 2003 by President Robert Mugabe’s government for “telling it like it is” as its motto goes.

The newspaper and its staff have been under incessant threats and pressure from Zanu PF bigwigs since it came back, including facing hundreds of millions of American dollars in vexatious lawsuits, 99 of which never even reach the courts.

Until Mugabe’s and ZANU PF’s contested electoral victories last year, the newspaper was banned from circulating in certain parts of the country, with its editorial staff often still barred from covering some State functions.ZANU PF apparatchiks have also routinely tried, unsuccessfully, to allege falsely that the newspaper is a beneficiary of Western donor funding.

A company spokesman said yesterday that they were watching events very closely.“It is obviously of concern that ANZ is once again being put under unnecessary and unjust pressure by some in positions of power, when we should all be working together to strengthen the country’s nascent democracy and the well-being of its people.“We are, however, confident that common sense will prevail soon, particularly seeing that the information that law enforcement agents say they are looking for is available publicly.

Vice President Mujuru, 8 ministers fired

Zimbabwe's one time presidential hopeful Joice Mujuru has been sacked as vice president after a public falling out with Robert Mugabe, a government source told AFP on Tuesday. "The VP has been fired. She was informed last night. A statement is being prepared as we speak," said the person, who asked not to be identified.

As the elderly head of state sought to quell infighting over his successor, the chief secretary to the Cabinet, Misheck Sibanda, said in a terse statement that Joice Mujuru had been fired.Also sacked were her allies in the ministries of energy, public service, and half a dozen other departments, he said.The move caps a long campaign by Mugabe and his closest lieutenants to isolate the 59-year-old Mujuru and her supporters.Once seen as the favourite to step into the shoes of Mugabe, who is now 90, she has come under increasing attack, notably from Mugabe's increasingly powerful wife Grace.

Critics have accused Mujuru of plotting to assassinate the president and of dodgy business dealings.

"It has become evident that her conduct in the discharge of her duties had become inconsistent with the expected standard," Sibanda said in the statement.He also blamed Mujuru for "conflict between official responsibilities and private interests".Mujuru earlier Tuesday blamed "a well-orchestrated smear campaign and gross abuse of state apparatus" for the loss last week of her powerful position on the ruling party's central committee.Her ouster shook Zimbabwean politics.

The ruling ZANU-PF party last week met for a closely watched congress to elect its officials, finally endorsing Mugabe as president and his high-profile wife, Grace, as head of the women's wing.

Mujuru said she was being victimised after exposing infiltrators conspiring to destroy the party, which has ruled the country since independence in 1980."I have become the fly in the web of lies whose final objective is the destruction of ZANU-PF and what it stands for and ultimately the present government," Mujuru said in a statement."A vociferous attempt has been made to portray me as 'a traitor', 'murderer' and 'sellout', yet no iota of evidence has been produced to give credence to the allegations."

The party has been riven by factionalism over Mugabe's succession, but in the past, party leaders managed to paper over the cracks.The public battle with Mujuru has not only rocked Zimbabwean politics but has put 68-year-old Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa firmly in the top position to replace Mugabe.Mnangagwa is seen as a hardliner who in the past controlled the secret police and military.

Mujuru did not attend last week's party congress following threats against her and her sympathisers by members of the party's youth league."I decided to stay away from inevitable public humiliation as was meted out to other unfortunate members of the party," she said.

"It was important to maintain the dignity of the office of the vice president even in the face of such unwarranted violence by a section of the party membership."Mujuru is a former guerrilla fighter who had held Cabinet posts in every Mugabe government since independence in 1980.Some cite another possible candidate as Grace Mugabe, who has also been called "Gucci Grace" and "First Shopper".

The reports follow the election in August of the 49-year-old former typist to a top post as head of the ruling ZANU-PF party's women's wing.After her nomination to that post, Grace immediately launched a sustained campaign against Mujuru, accusing her of corruption and plotting to topple her husband.

Key allies opt out of Zanu-PF congress in Zimbabwe

With a day to go until the Zanu PF congress ends in Zimbabwe, Vice President Joice Mujuru and her key allies, have not bothered to attend. They've  been accused of wanting to topple - and kill - President Robert Mugabe, who's been in power since independence.

Analysts say Mugabe will now ensure he's surrounded by loyalists.Several of Vice President Joice Mujuru’s allies stayed away from the Zanu-PF congress this week, after one was fired and others were suspended.

Two are reportedly ill.Mujuru among others was side-lined in elections to a key committee of the party, Where crucial decisions are made. 

An analyst, Piers Pigou says:"What's happened in the process is a massive centralisation of power within the party. The changes to the ZANU-PF constitution, which have given him unprecedented power within the party. What we must remember is that whoever finally does take over in the party will also adopt these powers as well, so it makes the successor's position extremely powerful."Analysts expect Mugabe’s wife Grace, to be elevated further in the party.She is due to become head of the women’s league.

Grace engineered Mujuru's ousting from Zanu-PF, accusing her of wanting her husband's post, and of being corrupt and divisive.Now Mujuru's position in government also hangs in the balance.Mugabe said on Thursday that the vice president faces arrest, If corruption allegations prove true.Mujuru was for years seen as one of the frontrunners as Mugabe's successor.She  is set  to be replaced by a Mugabe loyalist, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Infamous British criminal funding Grace Mugabe's campaign for power?

According to MailOnline, Mugabe, who has gained nicknames such as 'Disgrace,' 'Gucci Grace' or the 'First Shopper' because of her notorious love for shopping, is being secretly bankrolled by Nicholas van Hoogstraten, the British landlord who fled to Zimbabwe in 2007.

Secret documents obtained by MailOnline, which were apparently compiled by Robert Mugabe's intelligence chiefs, claim that van Hoogstraten is paying millions to help fund Mrs Mugabe's campaign for the presidency.
Van Hoogstraten, one of the largest landowners in Zimbabwe, is named in the documents as giving $62 million to bankroll Mugabe's presidential bid.

He fled Britain after he was implicated in a slaying of a business rival, and named as the organiser of a grenade attack on a priest.

Grace Mugabe claims Joice Mujuru plans to kill her.

 Zimbabwe's first lady Grace Mugabe has claimed she will be killed "Gaddafi style" by her political rival and nemesis, vice president Joice Mujuru, when her husband, President Robert Mugabe dies.

Mrs Mugabe, a former presidential typist who surprised many by launching a political career earlier this year, also called for Mrs Mujuru, who as vice-president is in pole position to take over from the ageing leader, to step down or be sacked

 She (Joice) has been telling people that once Mugabe dies, she will draw me close to her, and my secretaries told me that she will drag me in the streets, with people laughing while my flesh sticks on the tarmac," Mrs Mugabe told scores of women cross-border traders this week at her headquarters 15 miles west of Harare.

 Her comments were the latest salvo in what many in Zimbabwe believe is her campaign to take over the presidency from her husband when he dies, not least to protect the first family's vast assets.
Derek Matyszak, a political researcher into Zanu PF's constitution, said Mrs Mugabe was pushing for Mrs Mujuru's resignation because many of the approximately 1,400 delegates at next month's Zanu-PF elective congress who are eligible to vote for the party's new leaders support the vice-president's re-election.
If Mrs Mujuru does not resign or is sacked for an alleged misdemeanour, another way to remove her would be by stripping the congress of its say altogether, he added.


After his massive but disputed election victory last year, Mr Mugabe 90, said he would be the Zanu PF presidential candidate in 2018 elections and would die in power.
Mrs Mujuru, once his youngest cabinet minister, became vice president in 2004 after the party constitution was changed to ensure one of the two vice presidents was a woman.

Eldred Masunungure, political scientist and pollster at the University of Zimbabwe, said Zanu PF had never been so chaotic or divided and that the party's internal power struggles are making bankrupt Zimbabwe increasingly unstable.

"It seems Mrs Mujuru got too close to State House. This row is much more vicious then any we saw in the 1970s," he said.Some disaffected Zanu PF politicians are contemplating whether an alliance with the divided opposition Movement for Democratic Change parties is possible.

"It is too early to say whether this could be achieved. In theory it could be done and with a two-thirds majority parliament could pass a vote of no confidence, impeach the president and then fresh elections would have to be held," said an analyst close to Zanu PF who did not want to be named.

Meanwhile Oppah Muchinguri, the outgoing Zanu PF women's league leader who stood aside for Mrs Mugabe to take over her post at the forthcoming party congress, inadvertently revealed that the president himself marked the first lady's thesis for her doctorate from the sociology department of the University of Zimbabwe.

Mrs Mugabe was capped by her husband, the university's chancellor, in September although she had only registered for a PhD a few months previously.The university has refused to reveal which academic was her supervisor or the external examiner.

Grace Mugabe defends her PhD

FIRST Lady Grace Mugabe yesterday broke the silence over her controversial PhD conferment, saying she was determined to defend it and prove that she earned the title through hard work.


Addressing her maiden political rally in Chinhoyi following her recent conferment of a Doctorate of Philosophy degree by the University of Zimbabwe (UZ) and her nomination to lead the Zanu PF Women’s League, Grace vowed to shame her detractors.
“Today is an important day for me as it is a day I was asked by women in the country to kick-start my political career,” she said.
The First Lady’s PhD has stirred controversy over the past few weeks amid reports that UZ authorities could have upgraded her Master’s degree to a PhD, with some sources saying she did not even study for the degree programme.
The speculation swirled last week following reports that her thesis file was missing in the university archives, although her peers, including Vice-President Joice Mujuru, had their thesis documents publicised.
However, UZ authorities have kept silent over the issue while Grace’s sympathisers have claimed that the speculative reports were part of a plot to derail her budding political career.
Addressing over 2 000 Zanu PF supporters at her campaign rally at Chinhoyi Stadium, Grace said what matters most was not titles, but ability to deliver on people’s needs.
“You might have the title, but fail to garner the respect from the people . . . I can be called First Lady or Doctor Mugabe and put certificates on the walls of my house, but that certificate is not the one that will work,” she said.
Grace also took a swipe at factionalism in the ruling party and bemoaned what she termed lack of proper leadership qualities among some Zanu PF officials, adding that should her husband President Robert Mugabe decide to quit active politics, the party would crumble.
“Factionalism will get us nowhere. If what we are hearing is true, then those who are doing it are a shame to the party . . . they are getting money from the Americans and the British to destabilise our party.”
Grace warned party members to work tirelessly all the time not to wait for election time to visit constituencies.
Speaking at the same event, outgoing secretary for the Women’s League Oppah Muchinguri said the First Lady would now be the chief adviser to President Mugabe on almost everything.
“She is now the chief adviser of President Mugabe. That is why when she came here she wanted to know about the fairness of inputs distribution and report back on many other issues . . . the senior queen is now Amai Mugabe,” said Muchinguri.