FIRST Lady Grace Mugabe has reportedly fired about 30 domestic workers at the First Family’s rural Kutama home after they protested for being fed on a plain-sadza-and-vegetable diet, NewsDay has learnt. EVERSON MUSHAVA\OBEY MANAYITI
Reliable sources close to the family said the workers, who were used to being fed on meat diets, refused to eat vegetables, courting the anger of Grace who sent them packing two weeks ago.
The majority of the affected workers were members of the Matibiri clan, who are President Robert Mugabe’s blood relatives and were in charge of the family’s piggery and poultry projects, among other chores at Kutama in Zvimba.
Although Grace’s spokesperson Lawrence Kamwi could not be reached for comment, a Mugabe employee, who declined to be named, said: “Yes, it happened, but who are you and what is your interest?”
A member of the Mugabe family who also spoke on condition of anonymity yesterday said: “The workers have been trying to engage family members at the weekend for a way forward.”
The family member said before dismissing the workers, Grace had declared that she was in charge of the First Family’s domestic and political affairs and her decisions could not be reversed.
Another relative said Grace had never been in good books with most of the Mugabe family members since she started flirting with the Zanu PF leader and gave birth to Bona while Mugabe’s first wife, Sally, was still alive.
Since then, her relationship with most of Mugabe’s relatives, including domestic workers from the Matibiri side, has not been rosy.
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Meanwhile, the First Lady will this Friday descend on Manicaland Province as part of her whirlwind campaign to drum up support and crystalise her political career following her nomination to lead the Zanu PF’s Women’s League.
Zanu PF Manicaland provincial chairperson John Mvundura told members of the provincial co-ordinating committee on Saturday that the First Lady would hold her campaign rally at a yet-be-decided venue on Friday.
Grace, who is set to land the Women’s League secretary’s post at the Zanu PF elective congress in December, officially launched her campaign trail in Chinhoyi last Thursday with a blistering attack on party rivals seeking to oust her husband, President Robert Mugabe.
“She [Grace] will be coming here on October 10,” Mvundura told delegates at the provincial co-ordinating committee meeting which was attended by politburo, central committee and provincial executive members.
Mvundura took a swipe at war collaborators whom he accused of trying put the provincial executive on a collision course with the First Family for alleging that the provincial leadership was against Grace’s political ascendancy by not inviting her to the province.
Grace’s political rise has generated a lot of friction within the ruling party with rival factions accusing each other of seeking to block her.
There is growing speculation that she is readying to take over as president, succeeding her ageing husband who turned 90 this year.
This has complicated the succession politics in Zanu PF that is now characterised by direct public confrontations by party heavy weights, jostling to strategically position themselves to take over power in the post-Mugabe era.
