President Robert Mugabe\u2019s proposed $800 000, 92nd birthday bash next month will be a celebration of the greed and insensitivity that has characterised his legacy, opposition parties have said.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the MDC led by former Industry Minister Welshman Ncube said it was appalled at Mugabe\u2019s lack of feeling at the plight of ordinary Zimbabweans.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the government claims that it is broke and failing to pay teachers, nurses and doctors on time, industries operating below 30 per cent capacity utilisation, unemployment rate reaching an unprecedented 90 per cent, the majority of the population living below the poverty datum line, the national debt is above $10 billion and growing, it is incomprehensible that one man can still be gobbling up huge amounts of money on foreign travel, vacations and birthday gigs.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is beyond us how the President and his cronies in Zanu PF sleep at night,” the statement by Kurauone Chihwayi the party\u2019s spokesperson said.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe unabashed luxuriousness and self-indulgence demonstrated by the First Family reflects a tone-deafness with regard to the pressing concerns and needs of millions of Zimbabweans.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chihwayi said Mugabe and his \u201ccronies\u201d are living in \u201ccloud cuckoo land\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis birthday bash would appear in some cruel twisted way to be the sad reincarnation of French King Louis XVI\u2019s wife, Marie Antoinette\u2019s famous proclamation, \u2018Let them eat cake\u2026\u2019. They are living in a make believe world where things are normal,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu said the almost a $1 million could be put to better use instead of spending it on the-soon-to-be 92-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201cZanu PF should be utterly ashamed of hosting an expensive birthday bash for their aging ruler whilst more than 90% of Zimbabweans are wallowing in grinding poverty; caused by decades of Robert Mugabe’s misrule and mismanagement of the economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe money that is being budgeted for this ill-conceived birthday bash should actually be used to import maize to avert the impending starvation in Masvingo province and other parts of the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut then, this is vintage Zanu PF !!\u201d Gutu said.<\/p>\n
Mugabe is currently on holiday in the Far East while his administration is struggling to pay its workers.<\/p>\n
In December the government had to defer the payment of salaries by a month after realising it did not have the money.<\/p>\n
The traditional 13th cheque paid to civil servants has also been involuntarily despite Mugabe trying to appease rain soaked soldiers during independence celebrations last year that it will be paid following Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa\u2019s announcement that the bonus would be suspended until 2017<\/p>\n
Source – NEWZIMBABWE.COM<\/a><\/p>\n