But it may well have been more than the death of his beloved sister that shattered Mugabe and sent his health into what is reported to be further decline.
According to one of Mugabe's most trusted bodyguards who was present at the time, Sabina Mugabe, 75, warned her brother before she died that he was being betrayed by two of the most important people in his personal and political life: his wife and his personal banker, a pivotal member of his regime.
Sabina told the president that Grace and Gideon Gono, the powerful head of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and Mugabe's confidant, were secret lovers.
Grace, 41 years Mugabe's junior, has taken lovers before. One lover, Peter Pamire, died in a mysterious car accident. James Makamba, one of Zimbabwe's richest businessmen and a top-ranking Zanu-PF official, enjoyed her favours but their affair ended in tears, too, when a furious and sexually jealous Mugabe ran him out of town in fear of his life.
But never before has Grace been romantically involved with a politician in Mugabe's inner circle. And never before has a man so close to the president risked allowing it to happen.
The dangers from discovery are high. Zimbabwe state intelligence officials made it known that Mugabe's detection of the affair had already led to the murder of the bodyguard present at Sabina's bedside and more trouble would almost certainly follow.
"Once he hears something like that, I think someone will go and meet God," said one intelligence official.
Read more: http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article723480.ece/Disgraced---Mugabes-wife-has-affair-with-his-best-friend
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