ROBERT MUGABE HAS BEEN IN POWER SINCE 1980. PHOTO©REUTERS
Zimbabwe's ruling party Zanu PF is planning $1 million birthday bash for President Robert Mugabe who turns 91 on Saturday.
A Zanu PF youth leader Tongai Kasukuwere justified the huge budget saying Mugabe's stature demanded that celebration should not be low profile.
"We are not being lavish...we are just celebrating a life...he is the last remaining from African founding fathers and it is worth celebrating, we are not ashamed," he told the media.
"We have sourced more than half of what we want and more companies and individuals are promising to contribute in the near future."
The celebrations have been criticised by the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as 'obscene.'
"As the MDC, we are greatly perturbed to learn that instead of focusing on more serious and pressing national issues such as rehabilitating the country's collapsed public health delivery system as well as the renovation of the nation's dilapidated road and rail infrastructure, Zanu PF has seen it fit to squeeze the sum of $1 million from the country's ailing business sector in order to bankroll the nonagenarian's birthday jamboree in the resort town of Victoria Falls," MDC said in a statement.
Zimbabwe has been struggling to pay civil servants since the veteran ruler won a controversial election in 2013, with the economy continuing to take a severe knock.
In power since 1980, President Mugabe's term of office expires in 2018, when he will be 94 but he has indicated he would not quit anytime soon despite his increasingly frail health.
Recently, he caused a huge stir when he tripped and fell at the Harare International Airport soon after addressing Zanu PF supporters on his return from an African Union summit in Ethiopia.
Zanu PF usually coerces companies and individuals to donate towards the lavish parties held annually.
Organisers say guests would be fed game meat and other delicacies as has become the norm.
Read the original article on Theafricareport.com : A million dollar birthday bash for Mugabe | Southern Africa
Follow us: @theafricareport on Twitter | theafricareport on Facebook
Hey There !
Your comments are of utmost importance to us. Don't leave without saying something.