Is This The World's Newest Despot?
The Australian Women's Weekly|May 2017

She is the First Lady of povertystricken Zimbabwe, a former secretary who squanders millions of dollars on diamonds, designer shoes and high living. Yet, as her 93-year-old husband ails, the controversial Grace Mugabe is making a play for power.

William Langley
Is This The World's Newest Despot?

The sense of gloom is everywhere in Zimbabwe’s down-at-heel capital, Harare. Partly because the street lights don’t work and a fuel shortage keeps cars off the road and even candles are running out. Yet one grand residence is all a-twinkle, with illuminated palms swaying in its tropical gardens and chandeliers glinting off the elegant hostess’ diamonds.

Grace Mugabe, second wife of the country’s 93-year-old President, loves to entertain in the house derisively known as “Graceland” – built at a cost of millions of dollars, set in 16 hectares of grounds and featuring such everyday necessities as a thermostatically controlled chiller cabinet for the First Lady’s favourite Godiva chocolates.

Assorted flatterers and freeloaders have been coming here for years, but recently, a different type of visitor has been passing through Graceland’s guarded gates. With Robert Mugabe ailing and the end of his 37-year rule in sight, Grace, backed by a hard core of supporters, appears to be positioning herself to take over.

Western diplomats, who have watched Zimbabwe’s long, tragic slide from relative prosperity to chaos and impoverishment, warn that such a move would trigger a complete collapse. To pay the wages of its increasingly mutinous army, the regime has recently been reduced to selling elephants to Chinese wildlife parks. By the time Zimbabwe’s hyper inflated currency was finally abolished last year, a beer in a bar cost five trillion of the local dollars.

A shapely former switchboard operator who caught President Mugabe’s eye when she landed a job in his office, Grace, now 51, has no direct experience of government and – say her detractors – no obvious talent for anything beyond spending money. The First Lady’s love of shopping and casual requisitioning of state assets have won her the nickname “DisGrace” among opponents.

Esta historia es de la edición May 2017 de The Australian Women's Weekly.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

Esta historia es de la edición May 2017 de The Australian Women's Weekly.

Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.

MÁS HISTORIAS DE THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S WEEKLYVer todo
Hitting a nerve
The Australian Women's Weekly

Hitting a nerve

Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes - could aid physical and mental wellbeing.

time-read
5 minutos  |
July 2024
Take me to the river
The Australian Women's Weekly

Take me to the river

With a slew of new schedules and excursions to explore, the latest river cruises promise to give you experiences and sights you won’t see on the ocean.

time-read
4 minutos  |
July 2024
The last act
The Australian Women's Weekly

The last act

When family patriarch Tom Edwards passes away, his children must come together to build his coffin in four days, otherwise they will lose their inheritance. Can they put their sibling rivalry aside?

time-read
8 minutos  |
July 2024
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
The Australian Women's Weekly

MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN

When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.

time-read
8 minutos  |
July 2024
The wines and lines mums
The Australian Women's Weekly

The wines and lines mums

Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.

time-read
10 minutos  |
July 2024
Jenny Liddle-Bob.Lucy McDonald.Sasha Green - Why don't you know their names?
The Australian Women's Weekly

Jenny Liddle-Bob.Lucy McDonald.Sasha Green - Why don't you know their names?

Indigenous women are being murdered at frightening rates, their deaths often left uninvestigated and widely unreported. Here The Weekly meets families who are battling grief and desperate for solutions.

time-read
10+ minutos  |
July 2024
Growing happiness
The Australian Women's Weekly

Growing happiness

Through drought flood and heartbreak, Jenny Jennr's sunflowers bloom with hope, sunshine and joy

time-read
8 minutos  |
July 2024
"Thank God we make each other laugh"
The Australian Women's Weekly

"Thank God we make each other laugh"

A shared sense of humour has seen Aussie comedy couple Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall conquer the world. But what does life look like when the cameras go down:

time-read
7 minutos  |
July 2024
Winter baking with apples and pears
The Australian Women's Weekly

Winter baking with apples and pears

Celebrate the season of Australian apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the midwinter blues away.

time-read
10+ minutos  |
July 2024
Budget dinner winners
The Australian Women's Weekly

Budget dinner winners

Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of low-cost recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.

time-read
5 minutos  |
July 2024