Robert Mugabe’s nephew
said Grace Mugabe is now concentrating on building a university for her husband
as the couple were forced to step into oblivion last week.
“I like the spirit she
has; she is with him all the time. She is an amazing person. She wants to
continue planning the Robert Mugabe University so they have something to do,”
said Leo Mugabe.
Zimbabwe announced
plans in August to build the $1bn post-graduate university in Mazowe, 35
kilometres (20 miles) outside Harare.
Leo said Mugabe was in
good health and “quite jovial” after being forced to resign when a military
takeover ended his 37 years in power.
He, however, declined
to discuss the $10m retirement bonus reportedly granted to the 93-year-old
former president as part of a deal that finally persuaded him to resign on
Tuesday.
“He is fine. I have
been to see him, he is quite jovial,” the son of Mugabe’s late sister, Sabina,
told AFP.
“He is actually
looking forward to his new life — farming and staying at the rural home. He has
taken it well.”
In the exit
negotiations, Mugabe was granted a $10m lump sum, full immunity and allowed to
keep his assets, according to the respected Zimbabwe Independent newspaper.
He will still be paid
his full salary, in line with constitution, while Grace Mugabe will reportedly
receive half his pay after his death.
Asked about the deal,
Mugabe’s long-time spokesman, George Charamba, told AFP that “the package of a
retiring president will be defined (by) law.”
He earlier said
immunity had never been discussed during the talks between the president and
the army chiefs who briefly put Mugabe under house arrest.
Grace Mugabe, 52, was
alleged to have positioned herself to be Mugabe’s chosen successor, prompting
the military to intervene on November 14 and usher in its preferred candidate,
Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mnangagwa, a former
ally of Mugabe for decades, has vowed sweeping changes to revive the country’s
moribund economy.
In his inaugural
address on Friday, Mnangagwa also paid tribute to Mugabe, describing him as one
of the “founding fathers of our nation.”
Critics fear Mnangagwa
— who has been accused of overseeing violence and ethnic massacres — could
prove as authoritarian as his predecessor. (NAN)
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