BEING vice-president is not about chillaxing in the office and leaving President Robert Mugabe to shoulder alone the responsibility of leading the country, the veteran leader’s wife said Monday while addressing a rally in Matabeleland South.
She has been nominated for, and is certain to get, the chairmanship of the party’s women’s league but her “presidential” meet-the-people rallies in all of the country’s ten administrative provinces have left many wondering whether she is not being primed to take over from her 90-year-old husband.
The messaging of her rally speeches has also featured barely disguised attacks on a faction of the Zanu PF party backing Vice-President Joice Mujuru as President Mugabe’s successor.
Speaking in Gwanda town on Monday, Grace again talked about deputising her husband without however, making clear whether she was opining generally, referring specifically to the present incumbent or targeting those eyeing the vacant co-vice presidency.
“Some people like to ride on the back of the President, they think that being VP (Vice President) means sitting in the office and Mugabe working for them,” said Grace.
“We don’t want that, we want capable people. We don’t want a liability who spends time sitting with no ideas, that’s why I have said start with self-introspection.
“In fact, if you want to be fair to yourself, go to others and ask what they think of you. If people are honest and like you, they will tell you whether or not you qualify, but some people will just tell themselves that they qualify.
“They think it’s just a position that you can play with. We want people who will assist the President to work for this country.”
Mujuru was thought to be secure in her position with current national chairman Simon Khaya Moyo also seemingly assured to take over as co-vice president, replacing John Landa Nkomo who died in January last year.
But Mugabe, apparently angry that Zanu PF leaders had left party youths attending a national conference go hungry and botched the organisation of the women’s national conference, dropped a bombshell, declaring all politburo members would have to step down and a new team appointed in December.
A few of Zanu PF’s provincial structures have already nominated their preferred candidates for the party’s presidium but Grace warned Monday that they may be setting themselves up for disappointment.
“If you go around saying you are the one, and you are unstoppable, you are working against yourself. You are jeopardising your chances,” she said.
“I hear there are five candidates and we hear them from the papers. Do we conduct party business in newspapers? Please you stop it! Stop it!
“If you jump too much and run with supersonic speed, you will kill your chances.”
Mugabe’s party deputies – elected at congress - have also, normally, become state vice presidents.
“What’s said in our Constitution is that the President makes the appointments. The President is the one who appoints these people,” she said.
The 49-year-old First Lady lashed out at the West which claims to have frozen Mugabe's assets abroad, insisting the veteran leader had no property outside the country's borders.