FROM A SECRETARY TO A WIFE: HOW MUGABE TOASTED GRACE

Former president of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe revealed how he just grabbed and kissed his then secretary Grace Marufu, marking the beginning of an adulterous love affair as his wife battled terminal illness.

Mugabe, while speaking at the funeral of his mother-in-law, revealed that he just grabbed and kissed his then secretary, Grace Marufu, and it marked the beginning of their romantic relationship.

The now 95-year-old former Zimbabwean leader was speaking at the funeral of Grace’s mother at the couple’s Blue Roof Harare home.

Grace looked taken aback as the veteran leader revealed their love affair by stating that he just kissed her and decided she loved him too because he had not been resisted.

The affair started while Mugabe’s wife Sally was struggling with renal complications.

The former Zanu PF leader, a strict Catholic, said he was torn between obeying Church doctrine against adultery and pleasing his mother who wanted grand children.

Sally could not have children because of her health complications.

Mugabe made the following declarations on his love affair with Grace

“Yes, we had get involved when Sally was still alive, I had to,” Mugabe told mourners one Thursday during a church services for his late mother-in-law.

“Grace and I never dated either, I was just introduced to her and I said to myself she is a beautiful girl.

“So she came as a secretary and they were many of them, I just looked at them and then it was love at first sight with Grace.”

He added; “Then I said to her one day, I love you and she didn’t respond.

“I then grabbed her hand and I kissed her. She didn’t protest or refuse and then I said to myself now that she has accepted to be kissed, it means she loves me.”

Mugabe’s daughter Bona was born of the adulterous affair two years before Sally died in 1992.

The widely respected Ghanaian died in January with Grace giving birth the following month to their second child Robert Junior.

Mugabe has since claimed that Sally gave her blessing to the illicit relationship with Grace.

He married his mistress in 1996 and they went on to have their third child Bellarmine Chatunga the following year.

Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, was ousted through a military coup last November.

He opposed his successor (Emmerson Mnangagwa) at the presidential election with this state “How do you expect me to vote for the people who put me in this condition”. This to many was seen as a sign of frustration though to the eyes of the entire Africa he remains a hero.