Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s wife Grace is set to
become the country’s second female vice president after the ruling Zanu-PF
party’s 10 provinces agreed to have an extra-ordinary congress to amend the
constitution.....
Provincial leaders who spoke to The Herald, said apart from
reaffirming Mugabe’s position as the party’s sole presidential candidate in the
2018 elections, they also wanted to have the constitution amended to set aside
a vice presidential slot to women. Grace Mugabe Spokesperson for Harare
province Abicia Ushewokunze said the provincial executive committee had
resolved to amend the 2014 party constitution to accommodate “issues to do with
youth and women’s leagues” and to establish a female vice presidency. “We
resolved that the constitution be amended as there are a number of issues yet
to be addressed, especially the women’s league resolution on vice presidents,”
he said. Other provinces also resolved that Mugabe should be the party and
government leader for life. Zanu-PF was due to have an annual meeting in
December, but this will now been turned into an extra-ordinary congress. The
next ordinary congress is scheduled for 2019. The party constitution has
provisions for two vice presidents, currently occupied by men, but the women’s
league has been advocating one of the positions to be set aside for a woman.
Emmerson Mnangagwa and Phelekezela Mphoko are the vice presidents after Mugabe
appointed them in 2014. Mugabe in July advised the women’s league to consider
amendments to the party’s constitution to create a slot for a third
vice-president post that would be reserved for women. This was after his wife,
who is also the secretary for women’s affairs, said that the party should
revert to its resolutions that one vice-president’s position be reserved for women.
The party constitution was amended in 2004 to create the position of woman vice
president which went to Joice Mujuru. However, the provision was removed in
2014 as the First Lady ostensibly pushed for Mujuru’s ouster after accusing her
of trying to topple her husband. The position is also no longer an elected one
as the party created one center of power and gave Mugabe the prerogative to
appoint all members of the Politburo, which is the party’s highest
decision-making body outside congress. As the most senior female party member
by virtue of being the secretary for women’s affairs in the Politburo, the
First Lady has higher chances of landing the vice presidency than any other
female member.
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