Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe celebrated his 91st birthday with a lavish party by the spectacular Victoria Falls yesterday, prompting many Zimbabweans to question once again when he would leave office and who would succeed him.

Thousands of supporters were expected to attend the $1 million birthday celebration on a golf course near the waterfalls, organised by his ZANU-PF party. His party has said the money was raised from individual and company donations. Mugabe is a deeply divisive figure at home and abroad and is the only leader the southern African country has known since declaring independence from colonial power Britain in 1980.