President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, one of the longest ruling Head of State in the world turns 91 today, Saturday, 21st February! His ruling party Zanu PF is planning to give him another big birthday bash that is reportedly going to cost over $1 million which will hold next week Saturday. The celebrations is being planned by the 21st February Movement, the group that has planned Mugabe’s birthday celebrations since 1986. His 90th birthday party had cost the country $1 million last year. According to the spokesman for the ruling party, Tongai Kasukuwere, the party will honor him again this year with another jamboree at the luxurious resort town of Victoria Falls.
“We have sourced more than half of what we want and more companies and individuals are promising to contribute in the near future. We are looking at a sizeable figure which is befitting the magnitude of the person whose birthday we are celebrating. To us as Zanu PF youths, this is a moment to celebrate his achievements and greatness and celebrate what he has done for Africa and the world as a whole.” he was quoted as saying to Zimbabwe media.
“The celebrations show what has gone wrong in this country. Only those close to Mugabe feast while the rest of us starve. Look around, everyone is now a vendor,” said John Ratambwa, an unemployed 23-year old Harare resident. “At 91 one has to rest. Ninety-one years is too old an age to lead a vast country like Zimbabwe,” he said in downtown Harare, whose sidewalks is now overflowing with people selling wares.
The Head of State who has been serving the Presidency for 36 years had garnered headlines in Asia several years ago and nearly sparked a constitutional crisis between the former British colony of Hong Kong and China when his wife, First Lady Grace Mugabe took off her 24 carat diamond ring and attacked a British press photographer in January, 2009 near the Shangri La Hotel, Hong Kong. The repeated stabbing attack on the photographer face had left him with multiple facial lacerations. The Special Administrative Regional (SAR) legislators of Hong Hong had demanded her arrest for this “assault with diamonds” but was overruled by Beijing, citing diplomatic immunity. This episode also led to a spat between the SAR parliment and Beijing for some time. The First Lady was in Hong Kong at that time to visit her daughter who was studying there.
According to Micheal Sheridan, the Far Eastern Correspondent of the Sunday Times where the photographer was attached at the time of the incident, the paper was trying to draw a comparison between the lavish lifestyle of the First Family and the plight of the Zimbabwe people where inflation was officially at 231 million per cent and suffering an economic meltdown with over 2,200 death from Cholera. Zimbabwe remains one of the poorest country in Africa.
