ZIMBABWE’S RULING Zanu PF party is planning to spend $1 million (£650,000) on President Robert Mugabe’s 91st birthday party.
The controversial leader, who rose to power in 1980 is expected to be joined by 20,000 guests at the luxury golf course, Elephant Hills on Feb 28 – a week after his actual birthday on Feb 21.
The extravagant party menu includes two elephants, two Cape buffalo, two sable antelopes, five impalas and a trophy lion all donated by a prominent local farmer to the value of £78,000.
Opposition MPs have branded the feast “obscene” in a country where the UN says one in three children are stunted as a result of malnutrition.
The opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) has demanded that the event be cancelled and the funds go directly to hospitals and schools.
Obert Chaurura Gutu, its national spokesman, said: “The irony of it all is the fact that the bash will be taking place at a time leading economists have since announced that the average incomes in Zimbabwe are now at their lowest in 60 years.”
Mugabe’s birthday celebrations are funded by the 21st February Movement, which has raised funds to celebrate Mugabe’s birthday each year since 1986, and has said this year’s goal is a minimum of $1m.
Kennedy Mandaza, a South African-based spokesman for the governing Zanu-PF party, said: “There is nothing wrong to raise that amount of money, especially when there are so many well-wishers willing to donate to the president, given what he has done for the country and continues to do today.”
The event will be funded by private individuals rather than state coffers, Mandaza insisted. “People are offering resources they have got from their hard work. Yes, we are going through a rough space in Zimbabwe but that does not mean everyone in the country has not been able to give money.”
President Mugabe’s health has been subject to rumours with reports alleging that he is suffering from prostate cancer with Zimbabwe Daily reporting that he underwent a major surgery during his annual holiday in Singapore.
Just ahead of Queen Elizabeth, Mugabe is the world’s oldest head of state.