President Robert Mugabe, 93, has reportedly poked fun at "stupid" Zimbabweans who continued to leave the country for "greener pastures" in the US, only to come back home "empty handed" and "poorer".

Mugabe said Zimbabweans were better off in the southern African country than in the diaspora, as they often came back with "nothing to show for their stay abroad".

Mugabe said this at the weekend during his birthday celebrations in Matopos.

According to New Zimbabwe.com, the veteran leader said that his country was endowed with natural resources which Zimbabweans could exploit as opposed to migrating to countries where they were unwanted.

"Surely for you to go to America to go and look for a job is stupid. Non-Americans are being chased away there. What would you have been deprived of in your own country?

"What is that you get in America which you cannot get in Zimbabwe? I have not yet seen a person who, after working so many years in America, has come home with so much money, they return poor only to start looking for jobs here again. Where were you taking your money during all those years spent in America?

"So let us value our own country and its natural resources, work hard to transform our natural resources," Mugabe was quoted as saying.

This came just less than a week after the nonagenarian praised US President Donald Trump's "America first policy" adding that the policy resonated with his own thinking.

"When it comes to Donald Trump, on the one hand talking of American nationalism, well, America for America, America for Americans - on that we agree. Zimbabwe for Zimbabweans," Mugabe said during his birthday interview with state-run media.