$800,000 wasteful spending on Mugabe bash slammed

The opposition has slammed plans to throw an $800 000 92nd birthday bash for President Robert Mugabe. Mugabe turns 92 on February 21.

The ruling party is holding what is expected to be one of its biggest celebrations for the latest anniversary of its ruling party's creation, an attention-grabbing event that is the government's way of showing the world and its own people that Mugabe is firmly in control and a power to be reckoned with.

The spectacle, scheduled for drought-torn Masvingo Province, promises to be the most elaborate since the veteran Marxist assumed power at independence in 1980, and all indicators suggest the party could be the country's biggest ever.