FIRST Lady Grace Mugabe was conspicuous by her absence at a field day at her farm in Mazowe yesterday, fuelling speculation she may have slipped out of the country again for medical attention in Asia, as she has not been seen in public for a while.
by XOLISANI NCUBE/MOSES MATENGA
The First Lady was in no-show at her Grace Mugabe Foundation Farm in Mazowe where a high-powered delegation of Cabinet ministers honoured her for “outstanding farming activities” in Mashonaland Central province.
The Cabinet team was led by Local Government minister Ignatius Chombo.
Mashonaland Central Provincial Affairs minister and organiser of the event, Martin Dinha, professed ignorance over Grace’s whereabouts.
“She was not part of it (the field day programme). It is the province and invited guests who are appreciating her farming prowess,” he said.
The delegation comprised Chombo, Environment, Climate and Water minister Saviour Kasukuwere, Lands and Rural Resettlement minister Douglas Mombeshora, Harare Provincial Affairs minister Mirriam Chikukwa and Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs minister Faber Chidarikire, among others.
This paper is reliably informed that Grace missed last week’s Zanu PF politburo meeting and has not been to the ruling party’s campaign rallies for the June 10 parliamentary by-elections.
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It emerged yesterday that several candidates in and out of Harare had wanted Grace to officiate at their campaign rallies, forcing Vice-Presidents Emmerson Mnangagwa and Phelekezela Mphoko, party national commissar Kasukuwere and administration secretary Chombo to stand in for her.
A scheduled meeting with provincial ministers last week was called off at the last minute, as Grace was not available to address them at her Mazowe Orphanage Centre.
Grace was also expected to officiate at the belated International Day of Families in Masvingo last Friday, but her prepared speech was read by Small and Medium Enterprises minister Sithembiso Nyoni.
“She did not attend the politburo meeting, she was out of the country,” Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo told NewsDay on Wednesday when asked to comment on the First Lady’s whereabouts.
Pressed to reveal where she was and the reason for her absence, Moyo said: “I don’t know about that . . . I only know that she was out of the country, hence she could not attend the politburo meeting.”
President Robert Muagbe’s spokesperson George Charamba and Information minister Jonathan Moyo could not be reached for comment as their mobile phones went unanswered.
But informed party and government sources claimed the First Lady has been away for close to a month now and was seeking “medical assistance”.
“She is in the Far East. I can’t tell you the country where she is, but just know that she once visited China during her absence, probably Hong Kong or Singapore,” a senior government official, who is also related to the First Lady, said.
Grace, who dominated Zimbabwe’s political scene towards the end of last year soon after her nomination to lead the Zanu PF Women’s League, last appeared in public at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair in Bulawayo early this month, where she accompanied visiting Zambian leader Edgar Lungu’s wife, Esther.
Grace also missed the party’s national disciplinary committee meeting which recommended the expulsion of seven senior Zanu PF members, among them former Mashonaland East provincial chairman Ray Kaukonde.
The First Lady, as the Women’s League boss, sits in the party’s national disciplinary committee chaired by Mphoko.
One official said there were unconfirmed reports that Grace quietly flew back from the Far East at the weekend and was resting at the First Family’s Borrowdale mansion.
The Zimbabwean government and the First Family are fighting a South African national over the ownership of a £4 million ($7,7 million) apartment in Hong Kong and some speculate this is the reason she may have left the country.
A court hearing into the matter is set to begin today.
In March this year, Grace’s absence from the public scene sent tongues wagging before she resurfaced in early April and attended a crunch Zanu PF politburo meeting which expelled former Vice-President Joice Mujuru from the party on charges of plotting Mugabe’s ouster.
Early this year, Grace remained in Singapore where she was said to be recuperating from an appendix operation, while Mugabe returned from his annual holiday.
