'Cancel Mugabe's 'obscene' jamboree'

Zimbabwe's main opposition party, MDC-T, has blasted President Robert Mugabe who turns 91 on Saturday for organising a $1 million birthday bash at a time the economy was teetering on the edge while the majority of citizens were surviving on barely $1 per day.

In a statement yesterday, MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu described the birthday party to be held in Victoria Falls on February 28 as an "obscene jamboree" and called for its cancellation.

All the money that has been collected to bankroll this obscene jamboree should be immediately channelled towards rehabilitating the collapsed public hospitals, clinics and rural schools in Matabeleland North province [where Victoria Falls is located], Gutu said.

Any food items and other materials that have been donated for Mugabe's birthday bash should be handed over to the Jairos Jiri Centre and other orphanages in Bulawayo.

A farmer living near Victoria Falls has already donated two elephants and other game meat to help feed the 20 000 delegates likely to attend the event, to be held on the golf course of the plush Elephant Hills Resort.

The irony of it all is the fact that the bash will be taking place at a time leading economists have since announced that the average incomes in Zimbabwe are now at their lowest in 60 years, Gutu said.