Former first lady Grace Mugabe may have been humiliated when she was photographed watching in awe the swearing in of her archrival Emmerson Mnangagwa as the new president. But she won one last tough battle. She walked away with her money.
Add that to the hefty package that she and her husband were awarded including four international trips flying first class, what more could one wish for?
One would be tempted to say nothing, but according to Forbes magazine, Grace Mugabe may not be able to enjoy the fortune she has amassed and the shopping trips she enjoys as she did before.
“Serving dictators are welcome at all kinds of social or political events, whether or not accompanied by a certain gritting of teeth,” Forbes says.
“Deposed ex-dictators don't have that sort of social reach, mainly, of course, because they've been caught out. And it's that caught-out-ness that is the embarrassment for certain hosts.
“Fashion4Development, the charity organization behind the annual September awards luncheon during United Nations week, which Grace Mugabe blithely attended just weeks before she was deposed, will likely not be extending her a First-Lady-emeritus invitation for the fixture in September 2018.
“And the Mugabes can look forward to the inevitability that certain countries may decide that they just plain bring too much bad political freight with them.”
Apart from that, the magazine says Grace Mugabe should remain a welcome presence at luxury venues around the globe.
“She did, in fact, do that one tough thing. But that tough thing was not in amassing her fortune. For a Mugabe, in Mugabe's Zimbabwe, that part was dead easy. It just meant walking up to the trough, and helping yourself. By contrast, the tough thing that Grace Mugabe did was more recent. It was that she held onto the money.”
Grace Mugabe has not been seen in public since she accompanied her husband to Malaysia on his way to receive treatment in Singapore.
She did not even travel with him to Singapore but reportedly stayed in Malaysia with her daughter Bona.
And at home, things seem to be falling apart.
Police have removed officers who were guarding properties of a Lebanese businessman whom she claimed owed her $1.3 million for a diamond ring she bought from him but later returned.
To add salt to a festering wound, Auxillia Mnangagwa officiated at her favourite charity, Danhiko, recently.
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