Robert Mugabe expects pay rise after latest lavish celebrations

Zimbabwe may be bankrupt but this has not stopped President Robert Mugabe asking for a pay rise. It has been estimated that he currently earns about £5,000 a month based on the fact that his cabinet ministers are thought to receive around £2,000 a month.

It is expected that the government will not be able to pay civil servants on time, if at all, this year.

This request has emerged despite the fact that he has just spent $16 million of taxpayers’ money on his daughter’s wedding – including $1 million on resurfacing roads in Harare to be used by the party that included South African President Zuma – and is currently asking governments around the world to lend Zimbabwe $20 million after an expected loan from China fell through.

Zimbabwe needs the money to repair a broken dam which has left 60,000 people cut off from the rest of the country following recent heavy rainfall.

Mugabe reportedly warned the treasury against pulling an April Fool’s joke on him after finance minister Patrick Chinamasa said pay increases would come next month.

“We’re promised that we would get the money in April. Even the President is also a worker — 1st of April don’t fool us,” Mugabe said.

Last month Mugabe celebrated his 90th birthday in lavish style, during which he attacked Nigeria, saying: “Are we now like Nigeria where you have to reach into your pocket to get anything done…You see we used to go to Nigeria and every time we went there we had to carry extra cash in our pockets to corruptly pay for everything.”

In the world rankings for corruption (with higher numbers indicating higher levels) Nigeria is ranked 163rd while Zimbabwe is 170th.