BN (or is it Mahathir?) has a friend in Mugabe .......... and vice-versa?

Mugabe takes a holiday in Malaysia as Zimbabwe crumbles

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. — Metro