As many as 10,000 people were converging on a town in southern Zimbabwe for President Robert Mugabe's 84th birthday celebrations, state radio reported Friday. Many were traveling free on stolen commandeered buses and trains, it said.
Organizers of Saturday's ceremonies said they raised about 3 trillion Zimbabwe dollars (or the equivalent of about $250,000 at the dominant black market exchange rate) for the bash amid chronic shortages of hard currency, gasoline, food and most basic goods.
Mugabe, meanwhile, in a television broadcast marking his birthday on Thursday, described former ruling party loyalist Simba Makoni, 57, as a prostitute whose bid to challenge him in presidential elections March 29 was "absolutely disgraceful." |