News / Press Release
MDC statement on President Mugabe birthday bash
20 Jan 2016 at 07:09hrs | Views
Press Statement
To have a President luxuriating for a month in paradise while the country embarks on a season of massive pain was bad enough, but to have an $800 000 birthday bash thrown in his honor soon after is the biggest slap on the face to the suffering Zimbabweans. It is clear that President Mugabe and his ZANU PF party have no compunction about draining the little that people still have in order for him, his family and the top chefs in government to live the life of royalty.
When the government claims 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. It is beyond us how the President and his cronies in ZANU PF sleep at night.
The 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. It appears that the First family and the top dogs in ZANU PF and government are living a life quite detached from the daily realities of the suffering millions. This birthday bash would appear in some cruel twisted way to be the sad reincarnation of French King Louis XVI's wife, Marie Antoinette's famous proclamation, 'Let them eat cake…'. They are living in a make believe world where things are normal, and all this at a time Zimbabweans are desperate for a sign that the national leadership is sensitive to their plight.
What we are witnessing in ZANU PF and government is leadership that is rotten to the core and it is unfortunate that as President Mugabe celebrates his 92 years, he will be celebrating a legacy of greed and moral shamelessness.
To have a President luxuriating for a month in paradise while the country embarks on a season of massive pain was bad enough, but to have an $800 000 birthday bash thrown in his honor soon after is the biggest slap on the face to the suffering Zimbabweans. It is clear that President Mugabe and his ZANU PF party have no compunction about draining the little that people still have in order for him, his family and the top chefs in government to live the life of royalty.
When the government claims 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. It is beyond us how the President and his cronies in ZANU PF sleep at night.
The 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. It appears that the First family and the top dogs in ZANU PF and government are living a life quite detached from the daily realities of the suffering millions. This birthday bash would appear in some cruel twisted way to be the sad reincarnation of French King Louis XVI's wife, Marie Antoinette's famous proclamation, 'Let them eat cake…'. They are living in a make believe world where things are normal, and all this at a time Zimbabweans are desperate for a sign that the national leadership is sensitive to their plight.
What we are witnessing in ZANU PF and government is leadership that is rotten to the core and it is unfortunate that as President Mugabe celebrates his 92 years, he will be celebrating a legacy of greed and moral shamelessness.
Source - Kurauone Chihwayi - MDC National Spokesperson
