Grace Mugabe urges young men to respect women

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe’s wife, Grace, has urged young men to treat women with respect, especially as cases of rape are reportedly on the rise in the Southern African country, the state-owned Herald reports.

“You are not just respecting your mother alone, but other women as well,” Mugabe said, in an interview on Friday after touring various stands, including the Adult Rape Clinic, at the recently concluded Zimbabwe Agricultural Show in Harare.

“When you see a woman anywhere, you should think about your mother, sister or your wife. It [rape] is something you do not want to happen to your relative. I think this was a very important initiative that the group decided to embark on,” she added.

The agricultural show was the Zimbabwean first lady’s first public appearance after she was granted diplomatic immunity from prosecution by the South African government following allegations that she assaulted a Johannesburg model on August 13 with an extension cord at a Sandton hotel.

In setting out the reasons for granting the immunity to Mugabe, Minister of International Relations Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said she “agonised” over her decision, and had considered South Africa’s relations with states in the SADC region, particularly with Zimbabwe.

“I also had to consider international law rules that provided for derivative immunity of spouses of heads of state. It was a difficult decision, but one which, all things considered, had to be made,” Nkoana-Mashabane said in a letter to the speaker of parliament last week.

Meanwhile, minority rights group AfriForum – which is representing the young woman, Gabriella Engels – has lodged an application to the High Court in Pretoria to review Nkoana-Mashabane’s decision to grant Mugabe’s diplomatic immunity.

The DA on Friday also applied for direct access to the Constitutional Court to challenge the decision.

“The DA has filed papers in the Constitutional Court requesting direct access to argue that the decision of the minister of international relations and cooperation to grant diplomatic immunity to Grace Mugabe should be set aside as wholly without legal merit and should thus be declared unconstitutional and invalid,” James Selfe, the chairperson of the DA’s federal executive, said at the time.

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