LIFE OF A FILTHY RICH ZIMBABWE'S PRESIDENT

The lives of the filthy rich African presidents

The phrase “let them eat cake” is widely attributed to Marie-Antoinette (1755-93), the queen consort of Louis XVI. She is supposed to have said this when she was told that the French populace had no bread to eat.

This statement perhaps best exemplifies the insensitive nature of the lifestyles of African leaders.

There are many ways of gauging the vanity of some African leaders. You could count the monuments, universities, football stadiums, hospitals, statutes, highways and schools that bear their names or are dedicated to them.

When it comes to lifestyles, some African leaders have no inhibitions. They spend lavishly on birthdays, anniversaries, statues and even weddings.

The money ranges from direct siphoning from government coffers and public agencies, to forcing contributions from officials, friends, corporate organisations and kickbacks from multinationals keen on securing deals for infrastructure development, oil and gas and other natural resources exploration.

The lifestyles of African presidents and their families reflect the tragedy of resource-rich African countries where the leaders spend millions on luxury items, as the ordinary people live in abject poverty, lacking access to basic amenities and services such as clean drinking water, health care and education.

Recently, the Angolan government spent $35 million (Shs94 billion) to mark president José Eduardo dos Santos’s 72nd birthday. The money is said to have been spent on various activities that were undertaken in the country, including sporting activities, a state dinner and a talk by the president.

Hosting international public figures
Angolan media reported that the country’s culture ministry spent more than $6 million (Shs16.2 billion) on hosting international public figures to talk about the president. Among the invited leaders were former Nigerian president Olesegun Obasanjo, the United Nations Secretary-General’s representative in Angola Magareth Anstee and former Namibian president Sam Nujoma.

It was also reported that international hockey and basketball tournaments were organised at the cost of $1.5 million (Shs4 billion) each, while the country’s defence ministry organised a talk on the president’s commitment to the pacification of the Great Lakes countries, at a cost of $600,000 (Shs1.6 billion).

About 500 guests were also hosted to a lavish dinner in honour of the president at a cost of $1 million (Shs2.7 billion).

President Dos Santos, Africa’s longest serving leader after Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang’ Nguema has been in power since September 1979. In 2013, the president’s daughter, Isabel dos Santos, gave a personal loan to the government of Portugal when it was facing a credit crunch.

According to Forbes magazine, over the past decade Angola has been one of the world’s fastest-growing economies. Its gross domestic product grew at an 11.6 per cent annual clip from 2002 to 2012, driven by a more than doubling of oil production to 1.8 million barrels a day. The government budget stands at $69 billion (Shs186 trillion), up from $6.3 billion (Shs17 trillion) a decade ago.

Priorities
Interestingly, even with its oil windfall, 70 per cent of Angolans live on less than $2 (Shs5,400) a day, while recent Angolan government estimates show that 10 per cent of the country’s population are staring at a famine, due to drought and bureaucratic neglect.

Angola’s defence is allocated more funds from the budget than health care, education and agriculture combined.

In 2012, the International Monetary Fund reported that at least $32 billion (Shs86.5 trillion) from oil revenue went missing from the federal ledger between 2007 and 2010. The country is also faring badly on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index, with the latest findings ranking it 157 out of 176 nations.