Former president Robert Mugabe has complained about his pension and terminal benefits saying that he was given only $467 000 after all his time in service. Mugabe disputed the $10 million figure and said that President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s administration had refused to give him money for two houses, which he claimed he is entitled to. Said Mugabe,
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.
This one in which we are, we built slowly with a Yugoslav company. We told them we don’t have money to pay you fully but we would each month pay your workers and that’s what we are able to do. So, slowly year by year we managed to construct it, and that’s how we finished it. We wanted it to be Chinese-style because China helped us a lot during our struggle.
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. Here and there I must say they have helped us charter flights to Singapore where doctors check us regularly, we thank them for that.
Mugabe was reported to have received a US$10 million package so that he could retire after the Zimbabwe Defence Forces (ZDF) took power in November 2017.
More: ZimLive