Mnangagwa resists temptation to take revenge on Mugabe family

 Mnangagwa resists temptation to take revenge on Mugabe family
Published: 18 October 2019
PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has kept to his word and resisted the temptation to take revenge on former first lady Grace Mugabe who terrorised him in 2017 and also humiliated him last month after her husband died allowing Zanu-PF to donate to her and her daughter Bona two properties they are using in Harare, the Daily News reported.

And in more good news for Grace, she has also avoided ejection from one of the houses within her sprawling Blue Roof compound in Harare's leafy suburb of Borrowdale, after she reached a settlement with the owners of part of the property, who had won a High Court bid to reclaim their land.

This comes despite Grace and the late former president Robert Mugabe having hounded and then expelled Mnangagwa from the ruling party and the government two years ago resulting in the Zanu-PF leader having to flee into temporary exile, fearing for his life.
In addition, Grace also humiliated Mnangagwa last month after she snubbed the government's offer to have Mugabe interred at the national Heroes Acre, despite having initially agreed to the plan.

However, Grace is still feeling the heat from a number of people that her family dispossessed of their properties in Mazowe during Mugabe's tenure in power  who are now fighting to have the land back.

Zanu-PF secretary for administration Obert Mpofu confirmed to the Daily News yesterday that Mugabe's family had indeed been given title to the land on which the palatial Blue Roof mansion is built, as well as a house in the equally leafy suburb of Mt Pleasant where her daughter Bona stays.

"We have done the process of transferring the properties," he said, adding that the dispute between the Mugabes and those who wanted part of the Blue Roof back was a private matter.

A close family member of the Mugabes also confirmed the transfer of the title deeds to the two properties. Zanu-PF bought the land housing the Blue Roof before donating it to the Mugabe in 1999  who later bought five other adjacent properties  including one with a dam, stables, tennis court and swimming pool, and thereby substantially increasing the size of the estate.

Grace was due to be ejected from her continued hold on one of the adjacent properties that the family bought, after the children of a family that sold the property won a High Court bid to reclaim it.

In their court papers which were filed at the High Court in 2013, Farai and Nyasha Chitsinde  who were represented by their mother Constance Chitsinde  cited their father Oliver Chitsinde and the Local Government ministry (which facilitated the sale) as respondents, for having sold the disputed property that belonged to the then minors in 2004.

According to the writ of ejection issued on October 4 this year, the Chitsindes had intended to move onto the disputed property as soon as possible.

Grace had been given up to Wednesday to let go of the property, but has now entered into an agreement to pay off the family, according to information gathered by the Daily News yesterday. However, the decision by Mnangagwa to let Zanu-PF give Grace and her family title to the two properties is not being celebrated universally within Zanu-PF.

Many party bigwigs are still very angry because of the 2017 fallout and her humiliation of Mnangagwa last month, after Mugabe died — which saw some of them agitating for the Blue Roof to be turned into a museum.

Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association (ZNLWVA) secretary general, Victor Matemadanda  who was barred from paying his last respects to the Mugabe family  led the charge against Grace, saying the government should take away all the properties, including Grace's farms.

"No wife should direct where a person should be buried. What kind of a person is she, a person who cannot sober up even when they are bereaved? They wanted to have relevance and were thinking that they could use a dead man.

"If she has many farms she should prepare to surrender those and not try to use the body of Mugabe.

"It is nonsense to suggest that Mnangagwa should forgive the people who stole and insulted him and are now living in exile," Matemadanda thundered then.

"No, people should face trial for their crimes and not try to do things that are above the law. If ... Mnangagwa is going to forgive the G40 people they should first face trial.

"They should not abuse the president. If they committed crimes they should not hide," he added at the height of the tussling over where Mugabe was to be buried.

Not to outdone, the Zanu-PF youth league also accused Grace of trying to abuse the body of the late former president, saying such political stunts would not shield criminals from the full wrath of law.

"Whatever crimes people committed, hiding under Mugabe will not make them go away because he is dead.

"We know that there are some people with multiple farms and the law will take its course," its leader Pupurai Togarepi said apparently referring to the former first lady.

Meanwhile, question marks continue to hang around the Mugabe family's Mazowe properties, as artisanal miners have moved onto them following the recent move by authorities to allow people she had dispossessed of their land there to reclaim it.

At the height of Zanu-PF's deadly tribal, factional and succession wars, Grace was a central figure in the high-stakes brawling between Mnangagwa who was then vice president  and the Generation 40 camp, which was rabidly opposed to him succeeding Mugabe.

Mnangagwa was subsequently expelled from both the government and Zanu-PF on 6 November 2017, a day after Grace had said he was "a snake whose head has to be crushed" on a dramatic weekend which had seen the then powerful first lady being booed at a rally at White City stadium in Bulawayo.
- dailynews
Tags: mnangagwa, mugabe,

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