HARARE, zimbabwe — Marking his 90th birthday, Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe said he isn’t ready to retire.
“Why should it (retirement) be discussed when it is not due?” he said in an interview broadcast on state television. “The leadership still exists that runs the country. In other words, I am still there. … When the day comes and I retire, … I do not want to leave my party in tatters. I want to leave it intact.”
Mugabe’s actual birthday was Friday, when he was in Singapore for a cataract operation on his left eye, according to the president’s office. Mugabe returned from Singapore on Saturday and will celebrate his birthday Sunday.
The celebrations, estimated to cost $1 million, will be held in a 50,000-seat stadium in Marondera, 45 miles east of Harare, where organizers said potholed streets were repaired for the event.
In July, Mugabe who has ruled the nation for 33 years since 1980, won disputed elections for another five-year term that will take him to age 94. Critics say Mugabe won’t discuss his retirement because he wants to die in office.
