HARARE, Jan 13 — While the people of Zimbabwe struggle with cholera, hunger, hyper-inflation and violent repression, president Robert Mugabe has decided to take a month-long holiday.
The 84-year-old leaders wife, Grace, has been accused of withdrawing £60,000 (RM330,000) from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to pay for the trip to their family home in Malaysia.
Thirty days after Mr Mugabe declared the cholera crisis over, the UN has revealed the death toll is still soaring with 1,778 confirmed dead. Many people remain weakened and impoverished by one of the worst periods of pre-harvest hunger in years and 90 per cent of pupils are not attending school.
Most teachers are now on indefinite strike, meaning a charity set up last summer to pay school fees for impoverished pupils is now using its funds to feed youngsters and their families.
One child Educated Horizon has taken under its wing is 14-year-old Chipo. She had been selling tomatoes during the day and her body to truck drivers by night for 20p (RM1) a time.
The teenager from Chivhu, 100km south-west of the capital Harare, said: “I have two young sisters who look up to me, so I have to work hard. Whatever little money I get will help.”
Educated Horizon now feeds her family to keep her off the streets. London-based volunteer Herbert Dzinotyiweyi said, “We used to have the best education system in Africa. We were the lucky ones. How is the economy going to recover without an educated population?”
Mugabe’s spokesman defended his actions. He said the president was not so much on holiday but on leave to reflect on the Zimbabwean crisis. — Malaysian Insider
Me read with this piece in utter astonishment. While every single politician has been chest-thumping about the Israeli bombardment of Palestine, this fooking slips by unnoticed.
Not to make light of the human tragedy unfolding in the Middle East, but look at the sheer horror Mugabe has inflicted upon his people. The death toll from CHOLERA is higher than what the Israeli & Hamas bombs & rockets have managed to inflict on the civilians there.
And all this while our leaders have taken the moral high ground, claiming the international community does nothing to end the human suffering in the Middle East, we . . . beautiful Malaysia (cue cheesy music & 'Truuuuly Asiaaaaaa chorus) welcomes a corrupt, murdering despot unto our shores.
The bastard even has a holiday home here la, fer fooks sake. Mugabe must truly feel at home here. Where else corruption is conducted on such a grand scale & murder is swept under the carpet?
Malaysia - home to Corrupt Despots & International Pariahs.
