Four arrested for irking Grace

Three men and a woman were arrested after attending a ruling Zanu-PF party rally in the country’s second city of Bulawayo where Grace Mugabe was heckled while addressing the crowd on Saturday.

“There is no compelling reason for denying the accused their rights,” said magistrate Franklin Mkhwananzi, ordering them back to court on November 24.

They were freed on $50 (R719) bail each and barred from attending a forthcoming presidential rally in Harare.

According to The Herald newspaper, prosecutor Jerry Mutsindikwa on Thursday told the court that “the quartet, with others, allegedly sang the song into oyenzayo siyayizonda, which in Ndebele means “we hate what you are doing” – while Grace was addressing the rally.

The incident angered President Robert Mugabe, 93, who addressed the rally shortly after his wife.

He accused his deputy, Emmerson Mnangagwa, of organising and sponsoring the hecklers.

He vowed to fire Mnangagwa – which he did two days later in a dramatic move that appeared to open up the way for his wife to succeed him in office.

Grace Mugabe could be appointed as one of the country’s two vice-presidents at the party congress next month.

Mnangagwa, who had been touted as an obvious successor to Mugabe, fled into exile this week. His whereabouts are unknown.

The arrest of the four Zanu-PF activists came as the Zimbabwe high court on Thursday granted bail to Martha O’Donovan.

She is a 25-year-old American journalist who was charged with insulting Mugabe and attempting to subvert the regime on account of an alleged tweet that described the ageing leader as “selfish and sick”. –