[[File:Grace Mugabe with Robert Mugabe 2013-08-04 11-53.jpeg|thumb|right|upright=1.13|[[Robert Mugabe]] and [[Grace Mugabe]] in 2013]]
In the firstsecond week of October 2017, tensions between Vice-President [[Emmerson Mnangagwa]] and [[Grace Mugabe]], two leading figures to replace the 93-year-old [[Robert Mugabe]] as [[President of Zimbabwe]], were prominently displayed in the public sphere.<ref name=":2">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-41530924|title=Grace Mugabe warns of coup plot|date=6 October 2017|work=[[BBC News]]|access-date=14 November 2017|others=Additional political analysis by Shingai Nyoka of BBC News Harare|language=en-GB|archive-date=15 November 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171115143419/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-41530924|url-status=live}}</ref> Mnangagwa, a protégé of Mugabe's who had been his ally since the [[Rhodesian Bush War|Zimbabwe War of Independence]] in the 1960s,<ref name=":1" /> said that doctors had confirmed that he had been poisoned during an August 2017 political rally led by the president and had to be airlifted to a hospital in South Africa for treatment.<ref name=":2" /> He also pledged his loyalty to the [[ZANU–PF]] party and President Mugabe and said that the story spread by his supporters that Grace Mugabe had ordered the poisoning via a dairy farm she controlled was untrue.<ref name=":2" />
Grace Mugabe denied the poisoning claims as ridiculous and rhetorically asked: "Who is Mnangagwa, who is he?"<ref name=":2" /> [[Phelekezela Mphoko]], Zimbabwe's other vice-president, publicly criticised Mnangagwa, saying that his comments about the August incident were part of an attempt to destabilise the country and undermine the authority of the president, since doctors had actually concluded that stale food was to blame.<ref name=":2" />
