Mugabe complains about his pension

By Dakarai Mashava

Former president Robert Mugabe is unhappy that his 37-year-long stint as the leader of Zimbabwe has only yielded $467 000 and not $10 million as widely reported.

Mugabe was booted out of power and replaced by his estranged former deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa in November last year after a military intervention.

“If you are put in a place, a high place where you are the president of a country there are rules that must guide you. You don’t get the rules from those who are ambitious and will come sit next to you and say so and so is not good, so and so is a hypocrite. You must obey the rules.

“I say so because after I had resigned, I had to go to the pension office, to those who manage it, to say what am I entitled to? They said it’s $467 000, the total amount. But people talk about $10 million. They said you are entitled to two houses, one in Zimbabwe and one elsewhere at a resort. Those in power just went mum; they just refused to give me money for the two houses,” said Mugabe.

The former president added that he desperately needs the money so that he relocates from his Borrowdale mansion which has a roof which is about to fall.

“The Yugoslavs used normally trusses, not the Chinese way. The roof is beginning to sag, they say in two years’ time take care, you must get out. So we said we need the money, give us money to move out, but they are mum, they won’t tell you outright,” he said.

This is the second time the former president has complained about his pension and retirement benefits. In February, he reportedly complained to visiting African Union envoy Moussa Faki Mahamat that the State was denying him his benefits.

Mugabe’s benefits were laid out in an official government notice published by Mnangagwa in December last year, barely a month after the military intervention.

The notice read: “There shall be employed in connection with the residence of the former president (i) three domestic employees, and (ii) two gardeners, and (iii) two cooks and two waiters and (iv) two laundry persons. The ex-president will also get security staff, office workers and aide de camp officers.”

Meanwhile, Zimbabweans haven taken to social media platforms to lambast Mugabe for complaining about his $467 000 pension while most ordinary workers are getting monthly pensions which are as low as $60 a month. Daily News