Mugabe bash: youths plan $1m splash

via Mugabe bash: youths plan $1m splash – NewZimbabwe 17 February 2015

ZANU PF youths are planning to raise not less than $1 million by this month end towards President Mugabe 91st birthday bash to be held in the resort town of Victoria Falls.

Zimbabwe has one of the weakest economies in the world, but that has never stopped its nonagenarian leader from hosting lavish birthday parties year after year. It will be no different for his 91st birthday.

The ruling party’s youth secretary for finance, Tongai Kasukuwere told New Zimbabwe.com that so far fundraising is half way through and they were expecting more donations from individuals and companies.

“We have sourced more than half of what we want and more companies and individuals are promising to contribute in the near future,” said Kasukuwere.

“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 said.

Mugabe’s birthday is on 21 February. The 21st February Movement was set up in 1986 to mobilise resources to celebrate the president’s birthday each year.

Usually Zanu PF heavyweights compete to donate to the fund.

Last year, Mugabe’s exorbitant birthday celebrations cost almost $1 million, most of which purportedly came out of donations and state funds but not his own pocket.

The year before, the poverty-stricken country’s central bank presented its infamous dictator with an 89-kg cake.

This year’s bash will be held under the theme: “celebrating the birth of Gushungo, the icon of Zimbabwe’s revolution and champion of youth empowerment”.

Zimbabwe’s per capita income stands at a paltry $589 – far lower than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa’s, and Mugabe’s policies are widely believed to be the reason behind the economic plight

Mugabe told Zanu-PF members at a party congress in December last year that he had no intention of retiring despite his advanced age.

“I am here for as long as I am still sane… I still have a bright mind; I still have will. I know our history more than you do,” he said.

Early this month while returning from the Africa Union summit where he had assumed the chairmanship, Mugabe slipped as he stepped down the podium and fell on his knees-a development which many saw as a sign that he is living on borrowed times.