Julius Mugabe: ‘Let the black peasants eat cake.’

Robert Mugabe mocks a nation facing famine with a birthday feast broadcast on TV

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 11:03 PM on 26th February 2010

Eight thousand lobsters and 4,000 portions of caviar were eaten last night at a birthday party for Mugabe which was broadcast live to a nation facing famine.

The £330,000 televised feast to celebrate the Zimbabwe president's 86th birthday came as crop failure and drought raised the prospect of widespread hunger in the poverty-stricken country.

The list includes 200 bottles of champagne (Moet & Chandon or 61 Bollinger preferred); 8000 lobsters; 100kg of prawns; 4000 portions of caviar; 8000 boxes of Ferrero Rocher chocolates; 3000 ducks and much else besides.

A postscript adds "No mealie meal" - the ground corn staple on which the vast majority of Zimbabweans survived until the country's collapse rendered even that a luxury.

Mugabe's political opponents, the Movement for Democratic Change, said the food served was enough to feed 50 villages.

The MDC branded the 12-hour all-night gala a 'senseless extravagance'.

Also on the menu were 200lb of prawns and 500 bottles of whisky.

Guests at the party in Bulawayo were entertained by a Jamaican reggae star flown in specially and more than 30 musicians.

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