FIRST Lady Grace Mugabe’s entry into mainstream politics in December last year reminds me of the comical film, The Gods Must be Crazy.
Ever since she became Zanu PF women’s league secretary, the landscape in the party took a dramatic change, as cadres are not clear on how to relate to her. The thin line that separates Grace the First Lady from Grace the politician cannot be traversed with ease.
Filmed in the Kgalagadi district, Botswana, the film is about the instant manner in which life went off the rails for the habitants, the Basarwa tribe.
One of their own picked up an empty Coca-Cola bottle, which had befallen from an aeroplane. Henceforth, the entire clan was thrust into a frenzied commotion, as they tried to make meaning of the bottle.
Given that the community was accustomed to rudimentary tools, fathoming the origins and uses of the bottle was a taxing test of ingenuity. The Gods must indeed be crazy; how dare they drop such a perplexity among people untouched by civilisation?
With one tribesman thinking it was a flute, and another suggesting some other totally different usage, the usually tranquil community was engrossed in trying to come up with insights on how best to relate to the object which obviously was not like any other rudimentary tools they were familiar with.
Grace is to Zanu PF what the Coca-Cola bottle was to the Basarwa. Her entry into Zanu PF structures has shaken the party to the core. Even her husband, President Robert Mugabe, despite being the all-powerful First Secretary, appears ill-equipped to restrain her.
Her entry into politics has widened the chasm between Zanu PF cadres. Her brash utterances constitute material for another article, suffice for now to mention her brassbound tirade on former Mashonaland East Provincial Affairs minister Ray Kaukonde.
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Although Grace, as women’s league secretary, is supposed to be spearheading issues that essentially pertain to women, she is asserting herself as if she is the superintendent of the party. Her overarching gives credence to the criticism that she is usurping power.
The waves she is causing, however, can conversely sweep her too; she is arousing more enmity than amity. Her pontificating is, to all intents and purposes, her Achilles heel. It augurs well for her to moderate.
There is overwhelming need for Grace to tone down. It is absolutely imperative for her to slow her pace. Instead of crusading with the animation of a prosperity gospel preacher, she must bridle herself.
Understanding society is a demanding journey of discovery. It takes concerted effort to master. Graduating into the ranks of seasoned politicians, who can propound social issues, is not an overnight enterprise.
Societal needs are multidimensional; besides being spiritual and bodily, they range from political, economic, and sociological to psychological. On listening to her public addresses, it is as self-evident as pregnancy that needs a chaperon.
Scripture has it that an aptitude for every kind of learning and quickness to understand were some of the prerequisites the King sought for when Daniel and others were recruited for a three-year study programme leading to public service.
And, Methodist Church founder John Wesley summed up the importance of knowledge of humanity well. He said: “I know mankind too well. They that love you for political service, love you less than their dinner; and they that hate you, hate you worse that the devil.”
Aptly described as a real spoiler by The Sunday Mail, Grace is an unmistakeable political greenhorn. She is making headlines from her designer finery and hand-outs than her purported objective of uplifting living standards of people’s lives.
Her propensity of dishing out hand-outs is a silly and shallow strategy. Hand-outs devalue the inherent dignity of the recipient; instead of giving people fish, Grace can add value if she were to teach them how to fish.
If ever there is a sphere of human endeavour that separates the novice from the seasoned, it is how one conducts themselves in front of an audience. With all due respect, Grace has not endeared herself as grounded and rounded in the understanding of social issues.
She does not fully appreciate that democracy is a political process that seeks to embrace diversity. Democracy cannot be achieved when divergence is downplayed at the expense of conformity.
Human endeavours demand unity as well as diversity — diversity without unity leads to chaos and unity without diversity guarantees a mediocrity that is both bland and rigid.
The Sunday Mail columnist Bishop Lazarus summed up Grace’s naivety pointedly: “Amai Mugabe is turning out to be one of the most misunderstood politicians in the country. She is fresh from the oven and it’s quite understandable that some mistake her way of doing things.”
Grace has herself to blame for being hated. It not with tongue in cheek that Aristotle remarked: “Democracy allows the folly to speak so that they ease themselves into the fool’s paradise.”
lCyprian Muketiwa Ndawana is a public speaking coach, motivational speaker and speechwriter. Email: [email protected].
