- Title: ZIMBABWE: PRESIDENT ROBERT MUGABE MARRIES HIS FORMER SECRETARY
- Date: 17th August 1996
- Summary: ZVIMBA, ZIMBABWE (AUGUST 17, 1996) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. MV ZIMBABWE PRESIDENT ROBERT MUGABE AND HIS BEST MAN MOZAMBICAN PRESIDENT JOAQUIM CHISSANO STANDING OUTSIDE CHURCH (2 SHOTS) 0.13 2. MV LITTLE BOYS DANCING 0.20 3. CU BRIDE GRACE MARUFU BEING FANNED (2 SHOTS) 0.28 4. SLV/HAS MUGABE LEADING WEDDING PARTY INTO CHURCH 0.38 5. SLV/HAS BRIDE BEING LED INTO CHURCH 1.00 6. MV WEDDING VOWS BEING EXCHANGED/ RINGS ON FINGERS (6 SHOTS) 2.09 7. GV BRIDE AND GROOM ENGULFED BY CROWDS OUTSIDE CHURCH 2.22 8. MV SOUTH AFRICAN PRESIDENT NELSON MANDELA AT RECEPTION 2.30 9. MV RECEPTION WEDDING CAKE 2.36 10.GV GUESTS 2.44 11 MV MANDELA SAYING IT WAS A WONDERFUL OCCASION (ENGLISH) 3.33 12. MV BRIDE STANDING UP AND WAVING 3.34 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
- Embargoed: 1st September 1996 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: ZVIMBA, ZIMBABWE
- City:
- Country: Zimbabwe
- Reuters ID: LVA70Y2HTWB3N01CXKRKFU7NB09P
- Story Text: INTRO: Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has married his former secretary at a huge wedding attended by about 15,000 people.
Sleekly suited African leaders and barefoot villagers streamed to Mugabe's rural home in Zvimba, 100 kms (62 miles) northwest of the capital Harare for the wedding.
Only about 300 of 15,000 people who went to Zvimba for the wedding managed to get coveted seats in the Roman Catholic church to see the 72-year-old president exchange vows with his 31-year-old bride, Grace Marufu.
Mugabe, whose best man was Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano, pledged to look after her "in sickness or in health, in riches and poverty...till death do us part".
The three-hour ceremony presided over by Archbishop Patrick Chakaipa of Harare was a mixture of African and Western traditions, the sound of drums interspersing with organ music.
During the ceremony Mugabe knelt several times before the archbishop, who read a congratulatory message from the Pope.
Later wedding guests Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Sam Nujoma of Namibia and Botswana's Sir Ketumile Masire mingled with barefoot villagers at the reception, dubbed by newspapers "the mother of all weddings." Mugabe's first wife, Ghanaian-born Sally, died of kidney failure in 1992.
The president is reported to have married Marufu some months later the same year in a traditional African ceremony.
The couple have two children, aged eight and six.
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