Shock as Mugabe blows $50 million

Now derisively referred to as the “airborne” or “expatriate” president in some circles, 91-year-old Mugabe has since the tail-end of 2014 been to the Far East five times and visited five African capitals in what could be a world record travel for a serving head of state.

Mugabe has made over 10 trips since his return from annual leave on January 21. He spent his holiday in Singapore and Hong-Kong as usual. Barely three days after arrival from annual leave, Mugabe was in Zambia to witness the inauguration of President Edgar Lungu.

Before the ink was dry on his Lusaka plane ticket, Mugabe was off again three days later, this time to Addis Ababa for the African Union (AU) summit where he became the continental body chairman, flying just over 9 000 km in the process. He returned on February 4 and was to leave to pick up his ailing wife First Lady Grace from Singapore, travelling 16 500km.

Two weeks later, Mugabe was in South Africa to attend the Sadc Troika on Lesotho before flying out to Tokyo, Japan on March 10 and returning on March 17, a distance of 25 600km on the return to Harare. He has been to Zimbabwe’s southern neighbour twice since then, bringing the distance travelled to SA to 4 500km. On March 29, unfazed by growing criticism by Zimbabweans and opponents of his regime over his costly foreign travels, Mugabe left for Tanzania, some 2 421 km away. He had spent less than 48 hours in the country following his state visit to Algeria — almost 23 000km travelled in less than a week.

From Tanzania he proceeded to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, clocking 6 300 km on his return home after attending the 18th summit of the Community for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).

Days after his April 8 state visit to South Africa, Mugabe flew out to the Indonesian capital Jakarta, 16 600km away, to attend the Asia-Africa Summit as well as a ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the so-called Bandung conference which preceded the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement.

He returned on Monday from Moscow, 16 400km to and from, for celebrations to mark the 70th anniversary of the end of World War 11. On Tuesday he left for Mali.