Here are some key dates in the life of Grace Mugabe, wife of resigned president Robert Mugabe, whose ambitions to succeed him largely led to a military takeover. – 1996: Aged 31, she marries Robert Mugabe, 72, for whom she had been working as a secretary and having an affair. – 2009: Grace Mugabe allegedly assaults a British journalist trying to photograph her leaving a Hong Kong hotel. – December 2014: Grace Mugabe is appointed the president of the ruling ZANU-PF party’s powerful Women’s League and a member of its central committee, placing her high among the contenders to succeed her husband. – November 2017: Robert Mugabe fires vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, a move seen as intended to open the way for his wife’s succession.

Source: Punch November 21, 2017 18:00 UTC