Cape Town – Zimbabwe’s first lady, Grace Mugabe, has reportedly been invited to attend the ANC Women’s league (ANCWL) congress set to start on Thursday in Pretoria.
The ANCWL president Angie Motshekga said Grace was invited in her capacity as Zanu-PF Women’s League secretary and as a representative of a liberation movement, according to Zimbabwe’s News Day, citing theSABC.
“We have only invited former liberation movements like Zanu-PF. So we expect Grace Mugabe to come and we also expect Frelimo [Mozambican ruling party] to come. It is only former liberation movements that we have invited to come,” Motshekga was quoted as saying.
Grace’s attendance would most likely raise her political profile.
The league, which has battled to hold its conference for the last two years, is set to elect new leadership. Delegates at the congress are expected to debate the emotive issue of a woman president for South Africa.
Higher post
Grace entered into mainstream politics last year after she was confirmed as the women’s league boss in the ruling Zanu-PF politburo.
The first lady’s rapid ascent to the head of Zanu-PF Women’s League and her promotion to the party’s key decision-making politburo fuelled speculation that she was aiming high.
Last October, she told supporters at a rally in southern Zimbabwe that she was “seeing a higher post” and that she had been quietly mentored by her husband over the years.
But, in a recent interview with the state-ownedSunday Mail newspaper, she said she was not interested in politics and that she did not have an ambition to run for presidency.
“I have never – in anyway, in any place, at any time – said I would want to be the president of this country,” she was quoted as saying.
PH
