Addis ABABA – As the African Union (AU) struggles to get members to pay dues, President Robert Mugabe took the bull by the horns and recently sold cattle for a sizeable donation to the body.
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Mugabe handed over $1 million at the start of the AU’s bi-annual summit in Addis Ababa yesterday, after auctioning off 300 of his own cattle, as well as those belonging to some of his supporters.
The gift was a bid to show his resolve to make the AU self-supporting, as the tricky questioning of financing tops the agenda.
“As an African and a farmer, the donation of cattle came naturally to me, given that our continent is rich in cattle and cattle are held as a store of wealth,” Mugabe, who has led Zimbabwe since its independence from white minority rule in 1980, said.
An AU official said Mugabe had initially offered the cows themselves, but decided to auction them off when the union replied that there was no space for them at the AU’s shiny Chinese-built headquarters in Addis Ababa.
The AU is trying to wean itself from the foreign donors that finance the majority of its budget and has called on member States to impose a 0,2% levy on certain imports to cover its costs.
Funds from the import levy are supposed to cover 100% of the AU’s operational costs, 75% of its programme costs and 25% of its peacekeeping budget.
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But so far, only a handful of the union’s 55 member States have taken steps to implement the tax.
“Unless and until we can fund our own programmes, the AU will not be truly our own,” Mugabe said.
Despite nagging questions about Mugabe’s health, his ruling party claims that, at 93, he is still as strong as an ox.
He is drumming up support ahead of elections next year when he plans to seek office again, steadfast in his plan to rule until the cows come home.
