(THEZIMBABWETIMES) Mugabe’s mother-in-law dies at 101

Mugabe’s mother-in-law dies at 101
January 23, 2010

Robert Mugabe and Sally Hayfrom on their wedding day
By Our Correspondent

HARARE – Mavis Patricia Hayfron, the mother of President Robert Mugabe’s first wife the late Sally Mugabe, has died aged 101.

A family spokesman told Ghana News Agency on Friday that Hayfron died at her residence in Sekondi, Ghana. Her husband died in 1970. Hayfron is survived by her daughter Isabella Imbeah.

President Mugabe described the late Hayfron as “one of the greatest women that I ever had the opportunity to relate to”. He said she was a great mother, counselor, advisor, and a pious and God-fearing woman.

Sally met Mugabe at Takoradi Teacher Training College in Ghana where they were both teaching in the 1950s

They were married in 1961 in the then Rhodesian capital, Salisbury, now Harare, when he was 37.

Sally was often arrested by the Rhodesian police for campaigning with her husband against white colonial rule and spent six weeks in prison in 1961.

In 1967, Sally went into exile in London and spent the next eight years agitating and campaigning for the release of political detainees in Rhodesia, including her husband.

Mugabe was to remain incarcerated for about ten years. The couple’s only son, Nhamodzenyika who was born in 1963 during his detention, succumbed to a severe attack of malaria and died in Ghana in 1966.

After Mugabe’s release in 1975, Sally joined him in Mozambique. She was to become Zimbabwe’s First Lady at independence in 1980 after Mugabe became the first post-independence black Prime Minister.

After independence, Sally, popularly known as Amai (Mother), established charitable organizations which helped the poor, one of them – the Child Survival and Development Foundation which was heavily backed by UNICEF.

An orphanage she founded in Goromonzi is now lying idle with infrastructure dilapidating as a result of alleged looting by war veterans.

The matron of the Mbuya Nehanda Orphanage centre, Auxiliary Chonyera, says vandalism and neglect of the orphanage’s infrastructure after the death of its patron and founder, Sally have impacted negatively on the smooth running and safe keeping of orphans.

Sally died in 1992 aged 60 after a long battle against kidney disease. She was buried at the National Heroes Acre.

Mugabe married his second wife Grace, his former secretary, at a lavish ceremony in 1996. She had been married to Stanley Goreraza, an air force pilot, now a diplomat in China.

Mugabe and Grace have three children, Bona, Robert and Chatunga.

Zimbabweans have often pointed at the contrast between Sally’s humble lifestyle and Grace Mugabe’s penchant for lavish spending and acquiring property. Grace was also reported to have assaulted a photographer in Hong Kong.

Mugabe’s new wife has also been criticized for making inflammatory political statements.