Grace Mugabe is the wife of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe and the First
Lady of Zimbabwe from her marriage to the leader in 1996.
Grace was previously married to Stanley Goreraza, an air force pilot, who is
defence attaché at the Zimbabwe embassy in China. As secretary to the president,
she became his mistress while still married to Goreraza and together they
had two children, Bona, named after Mugabe's mother, and Robert Peter, Jr.
The couple were married in an extravagant Catholic Mass, titled the
"Wedding of the Century" by the Zimbabwe press, after the death of Mugabe's first
wife, Sally Hayfron. In 1997, Grace Mugabe gave birth to the
couple's third child, Chatunga. Mugabe is popularly known in Zimbabwe as "Dis
Grace", a reference to her extravagant lifestyle while maintaining political
responsibilities as first lady. In 2014, Grace Mugabe was given a
doctorate in sociology by the University of Zimbabwe, only two months after
registering at the university and although a dissertation does not exist.
The degree was widely described as fraudulent. Grace Mugabe is under
personal sanctions in the European Union and the United States for her role in
the Mugabe regime. Grace Mugabe was designated as head of
the ZANU-PF Women's League in 2014. ZANU-PF
In late 2014, Grace Mugabe was fiercely critical of Vice-President Joice Mujuru,
who was alleged to have plotted against President Mugabe. Ultimately the
accusations against Mujuru resulted in Mujuru being eliminated as a candidate
to succeed Mugabe and effectively becoming an outcast within ZANU-PF by
the time it held a party congress in December 2014. Meanwhile, Grace Mugabe's
political prominence increased. She was nominated as head of the ZANU-PF Women's
League, and delegates to the party congress approved her nomination by
acclamation on 6 December 2014. In becoming head of the women's league, she
also became a member of the ZANU-PF Politburo.
Sanctions After observers from the European Union
were barred from examining Zimbabwe's 2002 elections, the EU imposed sanctions
on 20 members of the Zimbabwe leadership and then, in July, extended them to
include Grace Mugabe and 51 others, banning them from travelling to
participating countries and freezing any assets held there. The United States
instituted similar restrictions. Controversies
= Real estate= During her tenure as first lady, Grace
Mugabe has overseen the construction of two palaces. The first, referred to
commonly as "Gracelands", became controversial for its extravagance, and
Grace Mugabe later explained that she had paid for its construction with her
own personal savings. It was later sold to Muammar Gaddafi of Libya. The second,
completed in 2007, was reported to have cost $26 million to construct and to
have been funded by the ZANU-PF party as thanks for Robert Mugabe's political
service. In 2002, Grace Mugabe toured farm
properties in Zimbabwe, looking for a new location for herself and her family.
She chose the Iron Mask Estate, which had been previously owned by farmers
John and Eva Matthews. The first family owns property in
Malaysia, and in early 2008, it was reported that Grace Mugabe hoped to move
there with her children. The intention behind the move was to escape the stress
of leadership and to address fears that the first family faces assassination.
Recent reports indicate that she acquired property holdings in Hong Kong,
including a diamond cutting business and a bolt-hole at House Number Three, JC
Castle, 18 Shan Tong Road, Tai Po, New Territories. The media speculates that
this property acquisition is intended as both a weekend getaway pad for their
daughter Bona who is studying at The University of Hong Kong under an assumed
name and that she and her husband expect to escape to China should they be ousted
from power in Zimbabwe. = Diamond trade allegations and lawsuit=
In December 2010 US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks brought up again
earlier allegations that high-ranking Zimbabwean government officials and
well-connected elites, including Mugabe's wife Grace, are generating
millions of dollars in personal income by hiring teams of diggers to
hand-extract diamonds from the Chiadzwa mine in eastern Zimbabwe. Grace Mugabe
is currently suing a Zimbabwean newspaper over its reporting of claims
released by Wikileaks she had made "tremendous profits" from the country's
diamond mines. The president's wife is demanding $15m from the Standard
newspaper. = Shopping=
Grace Mugabe is known for her lavish lifestyle. The Daily Telegraph called
her "notorious at home for her profligacy" in coverage of a 2003 trip
to Paris, during which she was reported as spending £75,000 in a short shopping
spree; and in the years leading up to 2004 withdrew over £5 million from the
Central Bank of Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe she is known sarcastically as "Gucci
Grace" or "The First Shopper" in reference to her numerous, lavish
European shopping sprees. When Grace Mugabe was included in the 2002
sanctions, one EU parliamentarian said that the ban would "stop Grace Mugabe
going on her shopping trips in the face of catastrophic poverty blighting the
people of Zimbabwe." She faces similar sanctions in the United States.
= Assault on photographer= The Times reported on 18 January 2009
that, while on a shopping trip in Hong Kong, where her daughter Bona Mugabe is
a university student, Mugabe ordered her bodyguard to assault a Times
photographer Richard Jones outside her luxury hotel. She then joined in the
attack, punching Jones repeatedly in the face while wearing diamond encrusted
rings, causing him cuts and abrasions. She was subsequently granted immunity
from prosecution 'under Chinese diplomatic rules' because of her status
as Mugabe's wife. = Daughter's controversies in Hong Kong=
Early reports indicated Bona Mugabe was a student at the University of Hong
Kong. A protest started on the University of Zimbabwe campus on 3
February resulting in about 30 students needing medical treatment including
police forces being used against defenceless citizens and harassments of
students. Zimbabwe students were protesting to the P. R. Chinese embassy
that Bona Mugabe should return home to Zimbabwe and study in the same
conditions as her peers. Colleges and universities in Zimbabwe have failed to
open at some point in 2008 due to dollarisation of fees and other economic
problems. On 17 February the University of Hong
Kong distanced itself from the controversy, denying a report that she
was a student there. The school statement said "We do not have a student
by the name of Bona Mugabe on our student register, and we do not have any
lady student from Zimbabwe who is reading for an undergraduate programme
or is at the age of around 20." Subsequent reports clarified that Bona
is in fact enrolled in a second school, the City University of Hong Kong, which
said she met normal admission requirements and her enrolment was not
influenced by her parentage. Due to the attention surrounding Robert Mugabe's
daughters her family enlisted the help of a female ex-government official to
provide safety and supervision during her time in Hong Kong.
According to Vice chairperson of the HK democratic party Emily Lau said the
government should study whether to follow international practice in barring
certain foreign politicians as many people might be looking at buying
properties, investments or education in Hong Kong. Lee Wing-tat said Beijing
should be making the decision since this was a foreign affair. Spokesperson Jiang
Yu from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China said
she was not aware of the Mugabes' alleged house purchase in Hong Kong and
would not comment further. A professor at the University of HK said Beijing was
trying to stay out of the controversy. The Beijing central government dismissed
the concerns, adding that Falun Gong members were allowed to buy properties
in Hong Kong. = Education=
Controversy ensued when Grace Mugabe was given a doctoral degree in sociology in
September 2014 from the University of Zimbabwe two months after entering the
program. She was awarded the degree by her husband and University Chancellor
Robert Mugabe. Her doctoral thesis is not available in the University archive
and she has faced calls to return her PhD. This caused backlash in the
Zimbabwean academic community, with some commenting that this could harm the
reputation of the University. References