Zimbabwe's Mugabe gets 'royal throne' for 90th birthday

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe speaks during celebrations marking his 90th birthday in Marondera, on February 23, 2014. Thousands of people turned out to wish him a happy birthday, where he threw 90 balloons into the air to mark his 90th year. 

Zimbabwe's veteran President Robert Mugabe who turned 90 on Friday, received a 1.2-tonne, treasure-studded stone chair from his Cabinet as a birthday gift, state media reported Sunday.

The animal-skin covered "royal throne", as the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation report described it, was presented to Mr Mugabe at an exclusive party organised by his staff in the State House on Saturday after he returned from Singapore following successful eye cataract surgery.

The "royal-throne", named Simbahwe in the local Shona language, is carved in stone and coated in gold, diamonds and several animal skins.

It took three local artists two years to make it and they gave it to the President's Office for free, the Herald newspaper quoted Chief Secretary Misheck Sibanda as saying.

Photos of President Mugabe sitting on the throne which is visibly covered with leopard and crocodile skins, lion furs and two huge claws, were splashed on state media.

One of Africa's most prominent anti-apartheid fighters, Mugabe has been the leader of Zimbabwe since independence from Britain in 1980.

In an interview a month ahead his 90th birthday, Mr Mugabe attributed his longevity to the "grace of God."

"Do not ask, how come you have lived this long yet you are older? I do not know how I have lived this long, it is all in God' s hands," Mr Mugabe said on the funeral of his last surviving sibling Bridget.

"90 is just a number. To me it's 90 years of experience, both negative and positive," Mr Mugabe said.

A leaked US cable in 2008 alleged that President Mugabe was suffering from prostrate cancer, a claim denied by the Zimbabwean officials. The president is on record saying he only has minor eye ailment.

He has hinted that he will not retire until his latest term in office ends in 2018 and has blocked talk of successors within his Zanu-PF party amid speculation that infighting between the two leading prospects, vice president Joyce Mujuru and Justice minister Emmerson Mnangagwa, has intensified in recent weeks.

Both politicians, who have been in Mr Mugabe's cabinet since the 1980s, have denied angling to succeed Mr Mugabe.