Robert Mugabe’s Birthday Party Guests To Dine On Elephant

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe celebrates his 91st birthday this month – and partygoers are set to dine on elephant.

At least 20,000 people are expected to attend the lavish celebrations just outside Victoria Falls on 29th February.

Prominent farmer Tendai Musasa told the Zimbabwe Chronicle he has donated game meat and a lion trophy worth £78,000 towards the event.

Robert Mugabe chowing down on birthday cake on his 85th

In total Musasa says he has supplied two buffaloes, two elephants, a lion, two sables and five impalas.

Describing the menagerie as “a perfect gesture”, he added the animals would be slaughtered a few days ahead of the big day with the meat being stored by a local hotel.

He dismissed complaints from other villagers who claimed the animals involved were part of their annual hunting quota and that the donation would deprive them on income, declaring them “enemies” of the president.

Two elephants have been donated to the feast

A spokesman for the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force told the Guardian: “I am not in favour of anyone donating wild animals for a celebration or for any other reason.

“They have been doing this for years now. Every time there is a celebration or on independence day, several elephants and buffalo are killed for the celebrations. This is totally unethical and should not be allowed.”

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Mugabe’s birthday parties are traditionally sumptuous affairs in a country which suffers from severe economic problems.

Last year the £600,000 celebrations saw 90 balloons released into the air from a stadium and huge cakes displayed at a stadium east of Harare.

Mugabe tucked into ice cream at his 89th birthday party

His 89th birthday saw the dictator presented with an 89kg cake and 89 cattle from the country’s central bank. Gold coins bearing his face were also minted for the party.

Zimbabwe, a once-prosperous nation of 13 million people in southern Africa, struggled after Mugabe’s government began seizing white-owned farms in 2000.

Mugabe was accused of using widespread violence to win several disputed elections, according to human rights groups.

The country suffered hyperinflation until it abandoned its currency for the U.S. dollar in 2009.

Robert Mugabe’s life in pictures

• Getty Images
  Robert Mugabe, then a guerrilla leader prior to Zimbabwean independence, is pictured on March 8, 1978 at the United Nations. (AFP/Getty Images)
• AP Photo
  In 1980, Zimbabwe held its first independent elections. Here, guerrillas loyal to Robert Mugabe lay down their arms, under the watchful eye of a British Monitoring Force soldier, before entering the mobile polling station limits to vote, March 1, 1980 at Foxtrot Assembly Camp in Zimbabwe. (AP Photo/Louise Gubb)
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  Robert Mugabe became Zimbabwe’s first post-independence Prime Minister, a position he held until assuming the presidency in 1987. In this March 4, 1980 photo, he raises his fists in triumph at a press conference following his landslide election victory. He then called for reconciliation in Zimbabwe. (ALLEN PIZZEY/AFP/Getty Images)
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  His call for reconciliation was welcomed by western countries. On August 27, 1980, Mugabe met U.S. President Jimmy Carter in the Oval Office in Washington D.C. (AP Photo/Barry Thumma)
• AP Photo
  From his first years in power, Mugabe’s rule was marked by brutal repression of opponents. Here, soldiers of Zimbabwe’s North Korean-trained “Gukurahundi” the Crack Force brigade, salute Mugabe at Independence Day celebrations in Salisbury, Zimbabwe April 18, 1982. The banner overhead reads, “Let Us Lay down Our Lives for Cde. R.G. Mugabe.” (AP Photo)
• AP Photo
  With the economy failing, Mugabe intensified his land reform program by authorizing redistribution of white-owned land. Some veterans of Zimbabwe’s independence war begin staging land invasions. Here, a farm manager’s wife and daughters are blocked from leaving their house by war veterans in Centenary district, March 29, 2000. (AP Photo/Rob Cooper)
• AP Photo
  In 2008, hyperinflation in Zimbabwe skyrocketed, with prices doubling every 24.7 hours, according to a Forbes estimate. This Dec. 19, 2008 file photo shows a newly released ten billion Zimbabwean dollar bill in Harare. (AP Photo)
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  After his party lost a parliamentary majority, Mugabe was accused of leading a campaign of intimidation of terror and violence against his political opponents in the 2008 presidential vote. Here, Mugabe greets his supporters at a final campaign rally in Harare on June 26, 2008.(ALEXANDER JOE/AFP/Getty Images)
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  In the aftermath of widespread violence, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and Mugabe formed a unity government in an effort to stay the crisis. In this photo, Tsvangirai (L) is sworn in as prime minister at the State House in Harare on Febuaury 11, 2009 by President Robert Mugabe. (DESMOND KWANDE/AFP/Getty Images)
• Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images
  President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe speaks to delegates at the UN Climate Change Conference on December 16, 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)
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  In 2013, Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe won a seventh term in office, amid allegations of electoral fraud. Here Mugabe (C) inspects the guard of honor during the commemoration of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces Day, shortly after his reelection, on August 13, 2013 in Harare. (JEKESAI NJIKIZANA/AFP/Getty Images).HuffPost