Former aide addresses Grace Mugabe assault claims

Former President Robert Mugabe was physically assaulted by his wife Grace and the army once considered giving him shelter at an army barracks. The Daily News has quoted an unnamed former aide as saying that while Mugabe was still in power one of his children approached an army general ‘to tell him that the former president was being badly beaten and abused’. ‘The situation was so bad that there was even a serious consideration to take their commander-in-chief to the safety of Tongogara Barracks,’ the former aide was quoted as saying. Mugabe is 42 years his wife's senior. Her alleged manipulation of him was believed to be one of the reasons the military took over the country last November.