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Mugabe's Party Feasts While Zimbabwe Starves
Over 200 farm animals to be consumed during four-day Zanu-PF conference
By Nick McMaster
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Posted Dec 19, 08 12:30 PM CST
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(Newser)
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The government of Zimbabwe has planned a decadent feast for delegates from the ruling party while starvation and cholera run rampant in the general population, Time reports. Robert Mugabe and 5,000 Zanu-PF delegates will treat themselves to 124 cattle, 81 goats, and 18 pigs across a four-day conference now under way. "This truly is incredible in a country where millions of impoverished souls are starving," said an editor of thezimbabwetimes.com.
Besides inflation and financial mismanagement that has forced Zimbabweans to resort to a barter system, a cholera epidemic—which Mugabe has denied the existence of—has claimed 1,111 lives so far. And though Zanu-PF will eat well at its annual conference, new UN estimates say that nearly half of Zimbabwe’s population will need food aid in the next quarter.