Austere Auxilia Is No Gucci Grace

Zimbabwe’s new first lady has taken quietly to her new role and is more community-minded than her despised predecessor

- Dennis Cavernelis

SHE cut a cool figure sitting by her husband’s side as the world watched him ascend to power in Zimbabwe. Understated in white, her hair tied back neatly, she was a far cry from the woman whose place she’s taking as first lady of the embattled country.

Perhaps Auxilia Mnangagwa, wife of Zimbabwe’s new president, Emmerson “The Crocodile” Mnangagwa (75), wanted to drive home the point she isn’t stepping into the designer shoes so beloved by the former first lady of flamboyance, Grace Mugabe (52).

Austerity instead of extravagance was the theme for Auxilia’s inauguration outfit. In fact, she didn’t even splash out on new threads – she’d worn that suit to a wedding earlier in the year.

She also appears to be more concerned with helping others than helping herself. Still, time will tell whether the 54-year-old MP and former Zim spy has more in common with grabbing Gucci Grace or gracious, modest Graça Machel.

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS 

Auxilia grew up in Chiweshe, a small town about 100km north of Harare, the second of five kids of parents who divorced when she was in Grade 3.

Her childhood in what was then Rhodesia was hard, she told the Zimbabwean Standard newspaper. “After school I’d fend for my brothers, collect firewood, fetch water and look for vegetables. I’d also fish in the river when it flooded and we’d sell the fish.”

Her school holidays were spent working on farms, picking cotton and soya beans, and “many other chores the baas [white farmer] would give us to do. He’d follow us on horseback or motorbike with his shotgun and a sjambok.”

It was this hardship, she said, that inspired her to promote the rights of children and access to education.