Mugabe ‘splashes cash on jaunts’

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Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe spends £2 million per month on luxurious foreign travel, a report says. Mail Online reports that the Daily News, one of the few independent newspapers in Zimbabwe revealed the despotic leader spent £12 million on travel in the first six months of this year. Official papers revealed that Mugabe was often accompanied by an entourage of more than 70 on his first-class jaunts around Africa and Asia, the report said. That means that Mugabe has already considerably overspent his entire annual budget for transport, at a time when millions of Zimbabweans face poverty, Mail Online said. The Daily News was quoted as saying: “President Robert Mugabe is the biggest spender in government as revelations emerge that he overshot his annual foreign travel budget by a massive 133 percent in just six months.

“So legendary is Mugabe’s penchant for foreign travel that he has chewed over $20 million to date, way beyond his $15 million annual presidential travel budget.”

The alleged details of Mugabe's spending come after the president made a series of high profile overseas trips.

The Daily News claimed the 87-year-old leader had been to the Far East at least five times already this year, with several trips believed to be for him to receive medical attention at a top private hospital in Singapore.

He has also made numerous visits to other countries within Africa, and flew to Rome in May to witness the beatification of the late Pope Jean Paul II.

Mugabe has been widely criticised for his expensive tastes in Zimbabwe, where many state workers earn just £60 a month and millions experience unemployment.

Local media has previously reported how the country's national airline Air Zimbabwe is often forced to hand over one of its seven planes at the whim of the president.

Mugabe is believed to have chartered jets from the state-owned company several times this year to travel overseas with his huge entourage of friends, assistants and security guards.

The Daily News claimed that the £12 million he has spent on foreign travel could have funded life-saving medication for six months for almost 600 000 HIV patients.

The controversy over Mugabe's spending follows criticism from his Zanu-PF party this week over the amount spent on travel by opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, Mail Online reported.

Tsvangirai, who has served as Zimbabwe's prime minister under a unity government since February 2009, has reportedly already spent £2.2 million of his department's annual £3 million transport budget.

The country's finance minister Tendai Biti told parliament he feared excessive spending on travel could delay Zimbabwe's economic recovery. Presenting his budget this week, he added that the country faced a £430 million deficit. - IOL