A daily newspaper in Zimbabwe has revealed that Robert Mugabe has spent an excessive amount of money on foreign travel in the last six months, totalling $20 million. And we’re not talking Zimbabwean Dollars here, this is US currency. He has now reportedly surpassed his $15 million travel budget for the year, but that’s probably irrelevant to him.

The pro-MDC Daily News made its stance clear in another online article:

While we appreciate Mugabe’s appetite for flying is legendary, we reiterate that he should consider cutting down on travelling to useless events which do not really benefit the country.

Presenting his mid-term budget to parliament this week, Zimbabwean Finance Minister, Tendai Biti, has described the foreign travel expenditure as the “Achilles heel” of the 2011 budget for his country.

He also mentioned that the country is facing a debt of about US$9 billion that needs servicing, and that they should implement the strategy aimed at removing the 75 000 ghost workers that have been on the payroll for ages soon.

In its original article, the paper used statistics from the World Health Organisation and calculated that travel expenses for government officials were “enough to finance anti-retroviral treatment for almost 600 000 people for six straight months in a public health system.”

Mugabe has been on the road a lot this year, attending the beatification of Pope in Rome in May as well as being the reported only head of state at a youth conference in New York this week.

He’s also gone to the east about five times for medical treatment and according to political commentator Professor John Makumbe:

It is embarrassing because he has no business at a youth conference. Civil servants are being paid slave wages and cannot make ends meet. Programmes are in limbo because government claims there is no money. So it is irresponsible.

Some of the trips Mugabe takes are simply to “facilitate shopping” for his wife Grace as well as to replenish their supplies of luxurious goods.

[Sources: TheZimbabwean, DailyNews]