A dynasty is in the works in troubled Zimbabwe, rather than the comprehensive change that is much needed. This week, the wife of long-standing President Robert Mugabe was appointed to a high-profile, senior position in the ruling Zanu (PF) party. Grace Mugabe was appointed secretary of the party's Women's League, which entitles her to a seat on the party's governing politburo. The women's group also endorsed her husband, president since 1987, as their preferred candidate for the 2018 elections.
President Mugabe, 90, is an international pariah due to his disregard for the rule of law and the rights of those who oppose him. He has also succeed in turning a country that was once the envy of Africa into an economic basket-case. Only through the use of heavy-handed techniques, including violence, has Mugabe been able to maintain his grip on power.
As befits the wife of a dictator, Grace Mugabe, 49, is very wealthy and has been known to spend lavishly on luxury goods on her international trips, when she accompanies her husband to the shopping capitals of the world. Known as the "First Shopper" and "Dis-Grace," her failure to be invited to a summit in Brussels this year kicked off a minor diplomatic kerfuffle. The official response from EU officials was that no leaders' spouses were invited, but that didn't hold much weight in Harare.
President Mugabe went to the African Union to pressure Brussels to permit Grace to accompany him, using the argument that attempts by Europeans to dictate the composition of African diplomatic delegations is a clear breach of sovereignty.
This, unfortunately, is not a recent indulgence for Grace Mugabe. In 2009, at the height of her country's economic meltdown, when unofficial estimates put inflation at 1 billion percent, she earned a place in tabloids around the world for a frenzied attack on a photographer outside the Kowloon Shangri-La, a luxury Hong Kong hotel. While she went shopping on her Asian holiday, the Zimbabwe Reserve Bank was busy back home printing 100 trillion dollar bills.
Her appointment to a senior position in Zanu (PF) means she will have an important role to play when the time inevitably comes to select a successor for her husband.
Although it is probably too soon to place a limit on Grace Mugabe's political trajectory, it is clearly possible that she could use her new role in the upper echelons of Zanu to position herself as successor to her husband, thereby keeping power within the Mugabe family. Although open discussion of any succession is banned, other senior members of the party have been visibly jockeying for advantage should the still-healthy President Mugabe eventually meet his end.
If you survive long enough in politics it seems, some level of begrudging acceptance is often meted out. President Mugabe is now chairing the Southern African Development Community, an important international body that, in 2008, after widespread violence in the lead-up to Zimbabwe's elections, had forced Mugabe into a reluctant coalition with his principal opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change. In addition, he is also on track to lead the African Union next year.
When President Mugabe is at his most presentable, he speaks on "resource sovereignty" and the importance of adding value to the continent's valuable natural resources, rather then selling them off just after they have been extracted from the ground. At other times though, his suspicion and hatred of the developed world becomes evident, as he accuses the West of meddling in his country's internal affairs and working to oust him from office.
His view of the world, and his country's place in it, is shaped by the colonial and post-colonial experience. Britain and the United States are unquestionably the enemy. He sees Zimbabwe and its African neighbors as subject to countless forms of exploitation and servitude by an international order slanted against them at every step.
The legacy of years of empire can still be seen in the names that British explorers gave to the continent. His party intends to correct these injustices by returning famous landmarks to their indigenous names. For example, they have plans to rechristen Victoria Falls as "Mosi-Oa-Tunya."
The rise of Grace Mugabe as a political force, rather than as simply the embodiment of conspicuous consumption, may be an indication that a post-Robert Mugabe era need not necessarily be a post-Mugabe era. Zanu (PF) seems determined to stay in power, no matter what the price, and no matter how ineffective their economic policies continue to be. The first lady's political ascendancy may give them their best chance at surviving the inevitable departure of their "great leader."