Mugabe parties with 10 000

2004-02-21 17:39

Zvimba, Zimbabwe - Zimbabwe's long-serving President Robert Mugabe feted his 80th birthday at his rural home near Harare with 10 000 admirers, family and friends on Saturday, a day after he pledged to step down in five years.

The veteran leader had accolades showered upon him at the ceremony at Kutama village in Zvimba, 80km west of the capital.

Leading the function was his second wife Grace, 40 years his junior and his former secretary.

"He was well brought up and that this is why he has reached this age," said Grace, in a lilac and gold outfit, the theme colours for the celebrations.

"Our children are still young. I pray that God grants him many more years so that he can instil discipline in our children," she added.

Mugabe and his second wife have three children, the oldest of whom was born while he was still married to his popular Ghanaian-born wife, Sally Hafron, who died from a kidney ailment.

The guests, including ministers, close family and villagers, were seated under a sprawling white marquee. Lilac and gold balloons grouped together to form '80' bobbed in the air as the ceremony started with mass for Mugabe, a staunch Roman Catholic.

Mugabe's younger sister Sabina said he was studious even as a child.

All the time he carried his books

"He had a high concentration, wanted to read very much. He was very hardworking, he would herd cattle and go to the fields but all the time he carried his books," she said.

The festivities including songs by school choirs, martial music by a police band and a series of songs by well-known Zimbabwean gospel singer Fungisai Zvakavapano, whose repertoire also included Happy Birthday to you.

Grace kissed her husband and briefly danced with Mugabe.

On Friday night, Mugabe told state television that he would step down from power within five years - a long-standing demand by the opposition who have accused him of ravaging a once-prosperous nation and destroying its economy.

"In five years, (I will) still (be) boxing, writing quite a lot, reading quite a lot and still in politics; I won't leave politics, but I will have retired obviously," he said.

Mugabe, however, did not indicate whether he would stand for re-election in the next presidential polls due in 2008.

Mugabe became involved in politics when he was studying at university in South Africa.

He returned to Zimbabwe and taught briefly before going on to Ghana where he taught and married his first wife. He returned to Zimbabwe in the 1960s and got involved in politics again.

Liberation struggle

Mugabe was arrested and detained for 10 years before he left for Mozambique in 1975 to take up arms in a liberation struggle that brought independence to Zimbabwe.

In the early 1980s he became an international icon over his reconciliation policy of accommodating whites, including former Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith, whom he had fought during a protracted liberation struggle in the 1970s.

His reputation as an African stateman started fading in recent years after the country - once the region's breadbasket - slid into economic decline as land reforms, which had been left unresolved for years, were jump-started with the violent occupation of white-owned farms.

Leaders, supporters and sympathisers of the largest opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change, have been victims of what they term state-sponsored violence.

The state-owned Herald daily Saturday carried a 16-page edition about Mugabe and congragulatory messages.

Recently appointed Anti-Corruption Minister Didymus Mutasa was quoted as saying Mugabe was "God sent and the best that has ever happened to the African continent."

"Our leader quite honestly is the best in the world. He must have been sent by the Almighty to lead Zimbabwe...," he said.

- AFP