Grace airs woes on rebel sons
Mugabe boys behaving badly
ZIMBABWE’S first lady Grace Mugabe has told relatives she is worried about the behaviour of her two sons – Robert jr, 25, and Chatunga, 21, who were recently evicted for bad behaviour from the R70 000-a-month flat they rented in Sandton.
Mugabe was reportedly speaking at a joint birthday she shared with her older sister last weekend, according to Newsday, a privately-owned Zimbabwe newspaper.
“I am telling you because the behaviour of children does not matter if they are the president’s children or not. All children are mischievous these days,” she reportedly told guests at the party at a farm near Harare.
“I have seen parents wearing torn clothes because their kids are demanding top-end trending clothes. In schools and universities, children are competing on fashion and they do not heed parental advice,” she said.
“Nowadays there are spirits attacking our children. The spirit of drinking, drug abuse and doing other abnormal things way beyond their age,” Grace said, indicating she could be on the verge of a breakdown.
“If I am to say, ‘Women stand up to talk about your children,’ very few women can be brave enough to talk about that without breaking down.”
The Mugabe sons have not denied they were kicked out from the Sandton apartment last month. They moved to South Africa this year after their sudden departure, allegedly in connection with substance abuse, from Dubai where they had been living and studying.
A blurred short video is doing the social media rounds in Zimbabwe exile circles in South Africa and London, showing two young men dressed in the style of Robert jr and Chatunga. They are screeching with laughter and look stoned out of their minds, bouncing on the top of vehicles in a car park.
Grace Mugabe’s oldest son Russell, from her first marriage, has also made headlines in Zimbabwe media over his turbulent private and professional life.
The Mugabe sons could claim South African citizenship as their mother was born in Benoni. – Foreign Service