Of husbands and wives: the tale of Grace and Robert mugabe

When Grace Mugabe came into the political atmosphere of Zimbabwe, so many things were said and written about her, all in a bid to undermine her political career. the former war veterans leader Jabulani Sibanda called her rise to power a Bedroom Coup. his argument was that Grace Mugabe came into power because her husband, the president, made it possible for her to do so. His allegations were written in both the private and the public media with newspapers like the Herald of 16 December 2014 and the News day of 03 December 2014 running the story. there was even a special of ZTV and it was even shown on the news, the speech about the alleged bedroom coup.

 these things were seen by a lot of Zimbabweans who were pretty much convinced that Grace's power was coming from her husband and that she was an extension of his political shadow instead of standing on her on two feet. why then would people like Jabulani make such claims, one might ask? the answer at the top of my head would be that Grace is a woman and that the political atmosphere in Zimbabwe is one that do not offer hospitality to female politicians. having said that, male politicians would go an extra mile to blast and undermine female politicians in the minds of the public and hence trivialize any contribution that women like Grace might bring to the table.

Even when it is clear that Grace is the one who is running the show in Zanu Pf and subsequently running Zimbabwe, male politicians take it upon themselves to denounce women like her. the gulf today  carried out a story in which the President of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe denies that his wife, Grace Mugabe is running the show. why would a proud husband vehemently deny to the media and thus the nation that he has a powerful and influencial wife who is taking over from him because the sun is about to set on his own time? if Mugabe himself goes out of his way to undermine and downplay the potential his wife has it terms of being a political leader then why should anyone respect her?

If the man in Grace's life goes out of his way to trivialize her power, then it means even the president of Zimbabwe is not 'cool' with female politicians and their power and hence will do everything in his power to assure Zimbabweans that men are still and shall always be in power, women won't. even though Zimbabwe is in dire need of a woman's hand taking into consideration how male politicians have made sire that Zimbabwe come to its knees, economically, politically and socially, thirty five years after independence.