Youth: "Robert Mugabe's birthday bash an insult"
President Robert Mugabe’s 300 cattle donation to the AU and his lavish birthday bash in Masvingo last weekend is an insult to the impoverished people of Zimbabwe, a youth group said on Wednesday.
Youth Advocacy for Reform and Democracy (YARD), a brainchild of former ZANU PF legislator, Temba Mliswa, said although Mugabe’s donation was from his personal property, it was a show of moral decadence.
“Our own national herd is depleting at alarming levels and surely a donation of that magnitude to the youth at the various learning institutions dotted nationwide would make a difference to the food sustainability at these establishments where the thirteen or so universities would benefit from the injection of at least 20 cattle each,” YARD spokesperson, Tinotenda Mhungu, told a press conference in Harare.
He said in his capacity as Chancellor of all universities in the country, a donation closer to home to benefit the youth would have resonated more.
Mhungu said if the cattle were to be sold at an average of $900, that would translate to a donation of $270 000, which would go a long way in helping the needy in the country.
“When added together to the cost of $800,000 lavishly expended on the birthday bash, then we are witnessing the extravagant wastage of just over one million dollars,” he said.