Zimbabwe has renamed its main airport after the country’s 93-year-old President, Robert Mugabe, who has been in power for 37 years.
In a crisp statement last Monday, the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe announced that Harare International Airport was being renamed R. G. Mugabe International Airport. The letters R and G represent the initials for Mr. Mugabe’s other names – Robert, Gabriel.
It was earlier reported that the government allocated $53 million to refurbish the airport’s terminal, which was built 12 years ago by companies linked to Mr. Mugabe’s nephew, Leo Obinga, in a state-financed project. A source said the edifice had not been getting adequate levels of sunlight. No doubt, the huge amount would go a long way in modernizing various areas of the airport.
Harare International Airport, which is in the nation’s capital, has Africa’s longest runway at 15,502 feet. The Transport Minister, Jorum Gumbo, dispelled all doubts about whether the measure was well-deserved. Mr. Gumbo explained, “If you see his contribution to the liberation struggle, education and empowerment of the people of Zimbabwe and Africa, you will see that he has a rich legacy that has to be preserved and his history should not be erased even as people visit our country.”
In August, the government announced it was planning to construct a university worth $1 billion and it will be named after President Mugabe. Also named after the leader are the government’s School of Intelligence, a main street in the capital Harare and the highway to his rural home.
Also, February 21, President Mugabe’s birthday, was declared a national holiday earlier this year.
Reports say that Mr. Mugabe, who became Zimbabwe’s leader when it gained independence from Britain in 1980, plans to run for re-election in 2018.
Opposition parties, which are against the renaming, accuse him of destroying the economy and plunging the country into untold poverty. The mainstream opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change, says “Robert Mugabe is not Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe is not Robert Mugabe. This weir and bootlicking concept of reducing Zimbabwe into a personal fiefdom of Robert Mugabe and his family must be condemned in the strongest of terms.”
