South Africa is currently gripped by the toughest game of ‘Where’s Wally’ ever seen on these shores.
Ever since she gave Fikile Mbulala a comedic slip yesterday and refused to report to court for assault charges, the Grace Mugabe case has descended into absolute farce.
Grace Mugabe assault
Currently, she is in hiding after going back on her word to hand herself over to authorities after attacking Joburg model Gabrielle Engels with an extension cord on Sunday.
The president of Zimbabwe was due to attend the 37th SADC summit in Pretoria this week. It’s understood he had to change his travel plans to deal with the matter involving his wife.
Since yesterday, Grace has put in a stellar bid to become the hide and seek champion of 2017, leading us all on a wild goose chase for the last 30 hours:
Where is Grace Mugabe?
- Tuesday, 11:00 – Fikile Mbalula tells the media that Grace Mugabe has ‘handed herself over’ to the authorities
- Tuesday, 13:00 – Mrs Mugabe doesn’t show up at Randburg. It seems Chief Mbalula was very liberal with the term ‘handed over’, and was referring to a verbal agreement.
- Tuesday evening – A flurry of speculation places the First Lady back in Zimbabwe, as rumours swirl that she’s done a back-door breakaway to Harare.
- Wednesday morning – Lawyers for the family prepare to fly into the country with Robert Mugabe, as Grace is now believed to be ‘holed up’ in Johannesburg somewhere.
- Wednesday, 14:00 – Their legal team confirms they will argue that Grace cannot be charged as she has diplomatic immunity. Police Commissioner Lesetja Mothiba states that Mrs Mugabe ‘should still be in South Africa’, but doesn’t not elaborate.
Read: What is diplomatic immunity, and does it apply to Grace Mugabe?
Does Grace Mugabe have diplomatic immunity?
The diplomatic immunity defence could be very problematic for the Mugabes, however: Grace was not visiting SA on official diplomatic business over the weekend when the attack took place. Therefore, she cannot claim immunity.
Maybe, just maybe, you wouldn’t need a technicality to protect you from anything if you had the human decency to not bludgeon someone with a plug.
