Mugabe feasts - as his people starve and his party plots

The hunger of his people, many of whom walked for miles simply to gaze at the tonnes of food on show, did not seem to put the President off his thickly frosted birthday cake, but he was said to be irked by a snub from one of his Vice-Presidents.

In what is likely to worsen a rift in Mugabe’s ruling Zanu-PF party, Vice-President Joice Mujuru stayed away from the function, just days after the President had accused her of plotting to oust him from power. Mugabe has ruled the country for 26 years but has increasingly come under pressure to relinquish power as Zimbabwe’s economic crisis worsens.

In a interview last week Mugabe said a faction led by Mujuru’s husband was involved in a campaign to remove him. Mugabe complained of ‘vicious, ambitious people’ in the top echelons of his party who were manoeuvring to get him out of power. ‘There are no vacancies,’ he said emphatically. ‘The door is closed.’

Mujuru’s husband, retired army commander Solomon Mujuru, turned up alone. A government official told journalists the Vice-President was busy studying for exams.

‘There is no way she can attend Mugabe’s birthday after Mugabe openly accused her of plotting to remove him. It’s an open message that all is not well in Zanu-PF,’ said a senior Zanu-PF official.

But if Mujuru absented herself from the party, held in a football stadium, others did not. ‘We are terribly disappointed,’ said a 38-year-old man who brought his wife and three children to the feast but was not allowed in. ‘This was an opportunity for us to get a proper meal.’

Inside the stadium, Mugabe, his wife Grace by his side, received gifts. A stuffed crocodile was presented by cabinet ministers who said it represented the President’s ‘maturity and wisdom’. Critics quipped that it more aptly sums up Mugabe’s cold-blooded, voracious nature.

Posted by gaanjah_mama
Harold: "You're good with people." Maude: "Well, they're my species."