Grace Mugabe’s widely anticipated court appearance has overshadowed the hospitalisation of her rival, vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa, still believed to be in a Johannesburg health facility. Mugabe and Mnangagwa find themselves trapped in Johannesburg — albeit for different reasons — amid a simmering battle for succession: the Zimbabwean first lady is in the country for allegedly assaulting a 20-year-old model, Gabriella Engels, at a Sandton hotel on Sunday; Mnangagwa for health reasons. On Thursday, a handful of people turned up in Harare at the Robert Mugabe Square to hold a prayer vigil for Mnangagwa’s speedy recovery. Popular preacher and self-proclaimed prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa, founder of United Family International Church, claimed he had given a "prophecy" in April that Mnangagwa would be poisoned. It has been a week of high political drama in Zimbabwe, which began with Mnangagwa hurriedly leaving a rally in Gwanda, about 120km south of Bulawayo, the second-largest city, ...
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