In an article we have published today titled “Filthy Rich” it highlights the lavish lifestyle of Africa’s longest self-serving dictators.

The article states:

“The former First Family of Zimbabwe – The Mugabes – deposed by the military, after the tanks rolled out on a weekend now four weeks gone, must surely rank top of this list.

‘’My husband, Baba Mugabe, is the poorest president in the world,’ his wife Grace (pejoratively nicknamed ‘Gucci Grace’ for her designer wear taste, and whom Mugabe politically miscalculated by trying to make his successor) told her supporters in 2014.

“Ironically, the back drop of where she said this was a sprawling ranch called Mazowe, north-east of Harare, seized from white farmers in the early 2000s, and where she had just completed construction of 30 luxury villas.

“The ‘poorest’ ex-president is said to have money hidden in the usual financial black holes of the world – from Panama to the Cayman Islands – and owns property in Malaysia, Singapore and Dubai, as well as the JC Castle in Hong Kong and a second castle in Scotland.”

The article went on to point out “the youngest Mugabe, Bellarmine Chatunga, posted a video of the $60, 000 (Sh6 million) watch he was wearing on his arm being doused in Armand de Brynac gold champagne (in celebration of his 21st birthday).”

And how poor is Zimbabwe?

Since 1997 approximately 72 percent of the country’s population now lives in chronic poverty, and 84 percent of Zimbabwe’s poor live in rural areas.

So why do the poor countries allow their leaders to live a life that rivals Royalty? Dictators have to be elected?

Money paid to the army that keeps the officers as members of the elite and the ordinary soldiers above the poverty line.

Education and information control.

George Orwell in his book “1984” said it perfectly. “The masses never revolt of their own accord, and they never revolt merely because they are oppressed. Indeed, so long as they are not permitted to have standards of comparison, they never even become aware that they are oppressed.”

All problems in the countries ruled by dictators is the fault of external enemies.

Purges are carried out every few years to rid anyone who oppose them either within or outside their ranks.

And is it only in countries ruled by dictators?

No

Where does the money come from they use for their own devices?

Both questions I will try to answer in another Editorial.