The President of cash strapped, poverty filled and famine ravaged Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has presented a cheque of $1m to the African Union Foundation, aimed at helping African countries escape from what he calls the “donor dependency syndrome”.
Mugabe raised the figure by selling a number of cattle he owns, and the donation is in fulfilment of a pledge he made last year.
Mr Mugabe made the donation at the ongoing AU summit, and challenged his colleague heads of state to find a way to wean their countries off depending on outside support.
This would be an admirable gesture if it wasn’t coming from a despot who has run his country into the ground and refuses to leave power.
Zimbabwe is currently mired in a food and cash shortage – more than four million people were in food in the country last year, official figures show.