HARARE – Former First Lady Grace Mugabe has had a major fallout with her former ally Professor Jonathan Moyo, apparently after the latter called her “toxic and polarising”.
This is revealed by Moyo, who says he has not spoken to former President Robert Mugabe’s wife since June 10 “when she blocked me from all communication”.
Moyo spoke after Grace used the burial of her mother, Idah Marufu, last Saturday to urge her former allies in a Zanu PF faction known as G40 to “move on” from the November 2017 military coup that scattered them from power, with their bitter rival Emmerson Mnangagwa assuming the presidency at Mugabe’s expense.
“Yes, what happened indeed happened. We must move on. We must learn to forgive each other. I have forgiven them,” Grace said, speaking at the burial in Chivhu.
She added: “If the person who was affected the most can forgive, how about you? I’m talking to those who are busy attacking Mnangagwa, let us move on and support him.”
Grace revealed she had been flown back from Singapore, where she was receiving treatment, by a jet hired by Mnangagwa for an estimated $300,000. The government had also picked the bill for the funeral after Mnangagwa told them to “save your little money”, she said.
While some of their G40 allies have retreated to a quiet life, Prof Moyo and Mugabe’s nephew Patrick Zhuwao have been strident critics of Mnangagwa and the military.
Their fallout with Grace, however, was over disagreements on how to steer the formation of the National Patriotic Front – a party that brought together Mugabe’s disaffected supporters.
In a statement, Moyo said he would have loved to extend condolences to Grace in person “but, alas, I was not able to do so after she blocked me from all communication with her on June 10, 2018.
“She did this in an angry response to advice I had respectfully and privately offered to her in writing, against her toxic and polarising wishes to lead the NPF in general and, in particular, against her then active but divisive push to be seconded by the NPF as a vice president in what had been proposed as a Grand National Union (GNU) of opposition forces ahead of the July 30 election. My contact with Mrs Mugabe was slim prior to 10 June, and none since then,” Moyo reveals. – ZimLive
