Parliament has blocked a proposal by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s office to place the wives of Mnangagwa and his two deputies, Vice Presidents Constantino Chiwenga and Kembo Mohadi, on the government payroll.

The move would have turned the three women into Grace Mugabe immortals. The Grace menace was the key trigger for the November coup that ended Robert Mugabe’s reign.

The Mnangagwa administration sought an amendment to the Presidential Salary and Allowances Act which would have seen the “presidential spouses” earning 50 percent of their husbands’ salaries and allowances.

But it was all blocked by Parliament which said that it was illegal. Part of the proposed amendments read, “The spouse of a president shall be entitled to an allowance calculated at fifty per centum of the salary and allowances payable in terms of section two to the president.

The spouse of a vice-president shall be entitled to an allowance calculated at fifty per centum of the salary and allowances payable in terms of section two to a vice-president.”

The MDC-T chief whip Innocent Gonese is quoted by Fingaz saying,  “He (Patrick Chinamasa) withdrew the proposal after we had contested its constitutionality and that there is no legal basis for the first lady to get an allowance…

“There is no law that defines the office of a spouse of the president in this country and it is not mentioned (at all) in our constitution. We should only deal with duly and properly elected individuals.”