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Mugabe says he, not Grace, is still in charge

President Robert Mugabe yesterday said he was still in charge of both the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front and the government, and not his wife Grace who catapulted from nowhere less than a year ago to head the party’s women’s league, and some argue, the nation.  “She is not the power behind my throne, she has come into politics in her own right,” Mugabe said in extracts quoted from his television interview by the state media. “She has just appeared on behalf of the women and the women asked her to go around addressing people and she agreed and went round, that’s all she did. Why should (the media) think that because of what she has done she is now the power?  She has not come yet into the real part of things. She has just attended one Politburo meeting, which she did not attend fully because she is not yet strong. Because of the dynamism with which she came out, it started giving people ideas vamwe vachiti she is now the power behind the party, she is now running what the President is doing. But we have the machinery of the party, we discuss, we decide and now that we have two vice presidents we share ideas.” Mugabe turned 91 last Saturday and is now the world’s oldest leader. His birthday bash will be in Victoria Falls tomorrow.

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Charles Rukuni

The Insider is a political and business bulletin about Zimbabwe, edited by Charles Rukuni. Founded in 1990, it was a printed 12-page subscription only newsletter until 2003 when Zimbabwe's hyper-inflation made it impossible to continue printing.

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