President Robert Mugabe is expected in Ghana for a four-day state visit next week according to Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to Ghana, Pavelyn Tendai Musaka.
A report by Ghana’s Joy FM said “Mr Mugabe will be in Ghana from August 18 – 22 for a visit that is expected to open corporate Ghana to opportunities in Zimbabwe.”
Ghana’s President, John Mahama, “is expected to confer on Africa’s longest serving President, the Millennium Life Time Achievement award for his role in Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle from British colonial rule,” the report said.
Ambassador Musaka said the Zanu PF leader has “a special soft spot” for Ghana. His first wife Sarah Francesca (Hayfron) Mugabe was a Ghanaian who was much loved in Zimbabwe. She was the First Lady of Zimbabwe from 1987 until her death in 1992.
Mugabe is also expected to meet with the Zimbabwean community in Ghana. His last visit to Ghana was in 2007. His latest trip will however raise more questions about the huge amounts of money he spends on what his critics call “meaningless trips abroad”.
Last year in December it was reported that foreign trips by Mugabe and his cabinet gobbled more than US$33 million between January and September 2015 which is more than what has been spent in the same period by key ministries like Industry and Commerce.
Figures from the 2016 budget statement show that much more is being spent funding Mugabe’s foreign trips compared to what is allocated to economic ministries which should be spearheading the country’s economic revival efforts.
More importantly Zimbabwe is on the verge of implosion with the government struggling to pay salaries for civil servants, cash shortages in the banks and a growing number of protests against the worsening political and economic situation. Nehanda Radio
