GRACE Mugabe thanks President Robert Mugabe for making her First Lady EVERY DAY, she said on Saturday while revealing a few family secrets.
The First Lady, 47, worked as Mugabe’s secretary before his first wife, Sally, died of kidney failure in 1992.
The couple married in 1996 and have three children together – Bona, Robert Junior and Chatunga.
The First Lady, speaking after donating food items to the Midlands Children’s Home, also told how:
# Religious Mugabe carries a rosary in his pocket at all times
# Their sons regularly cook for the family despite having a team of servants
She said: “I was very young when I started living with President Mugabe, but he was patient with me and took time to groom me into the woman that I am now.
“VaMugabe is very supportive of women because he knows kuti musha mukadzi (a woman makes a home).
“Every day, I make it a point to thank VaMugabe for making me the First Lady of Zimbabwe. There are a lot of beautiful women in Zimbabwe, but he chose me, a village girl, and made me his wife.”
She praised the 88-year-old Mugabe’s “ability to remain calm even when everything appears to be going wrong”.
“I believe that calmness is divine because my husband is very religious. He prays the Catholic way and always moves with his rosary in his pocket, even when he changes clothes he makes sure that rosary is in his pocket,” she said.
Mugabe had learnt the practice from his mother who “taught him that protection comes from God”.
“That’s the reason why he always takes principled and God-fearing positions even when everyone is on the other side,” she explained.
Robert Junior and Chatunga were also being groomed to be “fine gentlemen just like their father”.
“They might be members of the family, but my sons cook meals for the family. I have one daughter, so, I realised that the workload of household chores would suffocate me and decided to come up with a plan that sees them cook for the family regularly,” she said, according to the official Sunday Mail newspaper.
“I must say they are good at it. Making them cook even when the family has helpers is my way of making them appreciate life and prepare them to be husbands who appreciate their wives.
“As women, we teach men almost everything, including how to dress, but it seems we have not done much in teaching them that they can also cook and help with household duties.”