Critics slam Mugabe’s ‘senseless’ birthday party

By Alex Bell
01 March 2010

Critics have slammed this weekend’s lavish celebrations held in honour of Robert Mugabe’s 86th birthday, calling it a ‘senseless’ extravagance in light of the ongoing civil servants strike and critical food shortages.

The party, which started with an all night musical gala on Friday night and ended with a sumptuous feast on Saturday, is believed to have cost close to US$300 000. The musical gala featured international artists including Jamaican reggae icon Sizzla Kalonji, who gushed to journalists over his ‘honour’ at being invited. Other artists included South Africa’s Soul Brothers and Mzwakhe Mbuli. Saturday’s feast meanwhile featured a decadent array of food, a display which was broadcast live via the ZBC.

SW Radio Africa correspondent Simon Muchemwa was among the many of people gathered for the event, which critics have called a ‘waste of money,’ and insensitive. He explained that hotels throughout Bulawayo were fully booked and school children from across the country had been bussed into the city to watch Mugabe cut his 86kg cake. Muchemwa reported how top officials from ZANU PF and other noted guests were wined and dined in luxurious style, while many of the school children were left hungry during the live televised party on Saturday. He added that while the event was generally a joyous affair, there were numerous reports of thefts amongst the crowds of people gathered.

Several people in Bulawayo and Harare told Muchemwa that the party was ‘a waste of money;’ money that could have been spent on improving vital services in both cities. The party was also organised amid a nationwide civil servants strike that, despite losing much of its momentum, has highlighted the financial crisis facing the government, which cannot increase its wage bill. At the same time, IRIN News has reported that about 1.6 million Zimbabweans are ‘food-insecure,’ with about 1.9 million receiving food aid. The report, based on an update compiled by several UN agencies, said at
least 35% of children in Zimbabwe are severely malnourished.

“Holding these huge celebrations, even as civil servants strike for better wages, shows that the inclusive government has done nothing to change the arrogance of ZANU-PF, which insists on maintaining a personality cult around its leader, Mugabe, by nationalising what should be a private affair,” said political commentator John Makumbe.

Notably absent from the birthday bash was Mugabe’s partner in the unity government, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai. MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa is quoted as saying that the event was a “ZANU PF function, not a national function,” adding the MDC only joins ZANU PF during ‘national events’. Another MDC spokesperson quoted by the AFP news service, said the party was a ‘senseless extravagance.’

Mugabe meanwhile used the occasion to defend the controversial indigenisation law, which compels foreign firms to cede at least 51% shareholding to indigenous Zimbabweans. Foreign owned companies have 45 days from Monday to declare the racial make-up of their shareholding to the government. The companies will then have five years to comply with the law, or face possible jail time.

“We will need partners from outside, partners of our own choice not partners who impose them. Those who would want to impose partners would be aggressors. They are unwanted, we would repulse them,” Mugabe said.

Mugabe also called on youths to demand the lifting of Western imposed targeted sanctions on Zimbabwe which he termed evil and an impediment to Zimbabwe’s development. He accused Western countries of relentless attempts to gain control of the country’s rich natural resources.

“I would want to urge all the youth movements across the country and perhaps even across Africa to now raise their voices louder than before in demanding that imperialists countries of Europe and America leave us alone and drop those evil sanctions that they have imposed on us,” he said.