CHINHOYI, Zimbabwe (CNN) — Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe was celebrating his 85th birthday with a lavish all-day party Saturday despite the fact that the country is gripped with an economic and health crisis.
Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party said it raised at least $250,000 to hold the party in Mugabe’s hometown of Chinhoyi, about 150 kilometers (93 miles) outside of the capital, Harare.
Critics of the president say the country is desperate for that amount of money to be spent instead on its citizens, who are suffering from a cholera outbreak, food shortages, and spiraling hyperinflation. On Friday, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai visited a hospital’s closed intensive care unit that he said needed $30,000 to resume operating.
Mugabe’s birthday falls on February 21 but his party loyalists postponed the celebrations as they were raising money for the event.
“I think it is going to be a great day for the legend and icon whose birthday we are celebrating today here,” said Mugabe’s nephew Patrick Zhuwawo, one of the fund-raisers for the birthday.
“The country might be having problems, but we need to have a day to honor the sacrifices the president has made for this country.”
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