Where is Grace Mugabe NOW? Latest updates on Robert Mugabe’s wife as dictator RESIGNS
GRACE Mugabe has not been seen since she and her husband Robert Mugabe were put under house arrest during a military coup last week. But where is she now?
Ousted dictator Robert Mugabe resigned on Tuesday November 21 just as impeachment proceedings began against him in Parliament.
Mugabe has been pictured negotiating with the generals and even attended a graduation ceremony in Harare despite his fall from power.
Mugabe has been given immunity and protection for his wife. But Grace has not been seen since the military takeover a week ago.
The ousted dictator wants to die in his home country and has no plans to go into exile, according to a source close to negotiations over resignation.
"For him it was very important that he be guaranteed security to stay in the country...although that will not stop him from travelling abroad when he wants to or has to," the source told Reuters.
George Charamba, 56, principal aide to Mugabe, told The Times that Mugabe plans to write his memoirs and his wife will family’s dairy business and set up a university in his name.
“Once the resignation took place, the Blue Roof was secured and the first family’s other properties,” he said.
“[Grace] said to me, ‘Charamba, now I can pay more attention to my businesses as well as the orphanage and also work on establishing the Robert Mugabe University.’
"She has big plans and will be very busy.”
The generals behind the military coup wanted to stop Grace from succeeding her 93-year-old husband when he dies.
Since the coup, Mugabe’s wife has been moved between detention facilities at military bases across Zimbabwe, a source told the Daily Mail.
“She was taken away both to prevent them colluding and conspiring, and to isolate her husband further,” one military official said.
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“It’s best she is taken out of the picture and forgotten about for now – we will decide what to do with her later.”
But other sources told the Guardian she was in her husband’s Harare residence when he was detained last week and had not moved since.
Last week there were rumours that Grace had fled to Namibia. But the reports were later denied and she is thought to be in Zimbabwe.
Grace’s path to power was cleared when her rival, Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, was fired two weeks ago.
But her short-lived triumph over Mnangagwa proved to be her ultimate downfall.
The military rose up against Mugabe in support of Mnangagwa and he has now replaced Mugabe as the leader of Zanu-PF.
Mugabe’s wife is nicknamed 'Gucci Grace' and is known for her lavish spending on luxury items, making her deeply unpopular with many ordinary Zimbabweans.
Grace was the president's secretary and mistress until his wife died in 1996. Since 2014, Grace has gained political power.