Zimbabwes 94-årige tidligere præsident Robert Mugabe blev afsat fra magten ved et høfligt statskup i november 2017. Men ekspræsidenten siger, at han endnu ikke har set noget til de penge, som blev lovet ham, da han trådte tilbage, skriver den zimbabweanske avis SundayMail.
Ifølge avisen, har Mugabe nu fået nok af at vente – og han har heller ikke i sinde, at stå i kø til bankautomaten for at hæve sin pension på 13.333 dollar om måneden: Dokumenter, som avisen mener at være i besiddelse af, afslører at Mugabe har krævet en engangsbetaling på 467.200 dollar og månedlige udbetalinger af 13.333 dollar i pension – i kontanter og gerne så hurtigt som muligt.
Ifølge SundayMail, viser dokumenterne, at Mugabe som landets præsident, i årevis modtog sin løn på 20.000 dollar i kontanter, afleveret direkte til ham på sit kontor – alt i mens han opfordrede sin befolkning til erhverve sig plastikpenge (nationalt program for brug af plastikkort på grund af landets kritiske mangel på kontanter, red.).
I en officiel anmodning til Zimbabwes centralbankdirektør John Mangudya, står der, ifølge avisen :
“The former president was being paid his salary in cash and he has requested that the same arrangement be maintained(…)We are kindly requesting you to avail cash amounting to $467 200 and monthly cash amounts of $13 333 for us to pay the former president of Zimbabwe his pension benefits,”.
Brevet påpeger også, at Mugabe lovmæssigt er berettiget til sin pension i henhold til landets Presidential Pension and Retirement Benefits Act (Chapter 2:05).
SundayMail skriver, at man siden rettede henvendelse til Præsidentkontoret for at forhøre sig, om det er normal praksis at udbetale løn til præsidenter i form af kontanter. Ifølge avisen, fortæller en højtstående embedsmand i Præsidentkontoret, at landets nye præsident Emmerson Mnangagwa var lidt forundret over ordningen, da han på sin første lønningsdag fik besøg af en kvinde fra centralbanken med en pose fuld af kontanter:
“I can tell you for a fact, because I was there, that a lady (name withheld) from CBZ Bank came with a sack of cash to President Mnangagwa’s Office when his first pay day arrived. The President asked her what the money was for, and she pulled out a form and said it was his salary and he must sign for it(…)I can tell you for a fact, because I was there, that a lady (name withheld) from CBZ Bank came with a sack of cash to President Mnangagwa’s Office when his first pay day arrived. The President asked her what the money was for, and she pulled out a form and said it was his salary and he must sign for it(…)The President said it was highly irregular and irresponsible, and the lady indicated that cash salary payments were standard for the old man (Mr Mugabe) and she assumed that was how things were done for the highest office in the land(…)His Excellency gave her his bank account number and told her to do a transfer as is done for everyone else, and told her that if he needed cash he would queue for it like everyone else because the cash shortages affected all Zimbabweans and he would demand no such preferential and irregular treatment.”
