Harare - Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe has awarded himself a 159 percent pay increase, according to figures issued in Harare on Monday, media sources reported.
A notice published by the government printer said Mugabe's annual pay is now 1,3 million Zimbabwe dollars
(about R216 000), making him the first Zimbabwe government official with an annual official wage of over one million Zimbabwe dollars.
The official announcement of Mugabe's pay rise comes nearly two weeks after it was announced that his vice-president, cabinet and members of parliament would get raises of between 157 percent and 300 percent.
Mugabe presently earns a salary of R130 600. He also gets a cabinet allowance of R40 000, a general allowance of R25 000 and a housing allowance of R23 300.
Like his colleagues' pay, Mugabe's increase is backdated to July. His last increase was a 65 percent hike in October last year.
The huge increase is more than six times the 25 percent raise granted to civil servants in January this year.
Earlier this month, hard-pressed Zimbabweans suffered a triple blow in the form of increased prices in fuel, bread and the national staple food, maizemeal.
Mugabe's pay puts him in a tax bracket of over 50 percent, but, unlike private sector executives, he is not liable to income tax on his official earnings. - Sapa