The big question: Zim after Mugabe?

A RECENT scandal in South Africa involving Zimbabwe’s first lady has focused new attention on one of Africa’s biggest questions: who will succeed Robert Mugabe, the world’s oldest leader?

Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980 and is now 93. Nevertheless, he says he will be the ruling party’s candidate in the next elections in 2018.

But even the ascetic teetotaller, who is said to rise at 4am to do exercises, cannot go on forever.

Mugabe’s long tenure is partly down to the respect in which he is still held in much of the continent as a legendary liberation leader.

But he has also skilfully divided both his allies and enemies, refusing to designate a successor who could be a threat.

This has created dangerous divisions in Zanu-PF, the ruling party since independence.

Mugabe’s second wife Grace, 40 years his junior, grabbed headlines last month when she was accused of beating a fashion model with an extension cord in a luxury hotel in Johannesburg.

Grace, 52, returned home after the Pretoria government controversially granted her diplomatic immunity.

Grace is powerful. In 2014, she brought down Joice Mujuru, ex-deputy president and a liberation war veteran long seen as Mugabe’s likely successor.

Her chief rival and the front runner to replace Mugabe is Vice- President Emmerson Mnangagwa, 74, believed to have the backing of both the army and the powerful war veterans organisation.

But Grace’s closeness to Mugabe means she remains a dangerous opponent. – ANA/ News-Decoder