Former president Robert Mugabe doesn't want to join cash-starved Zimbabwe's bank queues: he wants to get his money out in cash just like he's always done.

It's emerged that the 94 year-old was getting $20 000 a month in cash while he was president while telling ordinary citizens they should adopt plastic money.

Lump sum
Now he's asking for a lump sum pay-out of nearly half a million US dollars plus his monthly pension of more than $13 000 in cash, reports the Sunday Mail.

Public Service Commission Chairperson Mariyawanda Nzuwah wrote in a letter to central bank chief John Mangudya: "The former president was being paid his salary in cash and he has requested that the same arrangement be maintained."