ZIMBABWEAN OFFICIALS dismissed reports yesterday that President Robert Mugabe was undergoing medical treatment in Dubai following a serious health scare, saying they were rubbish and the product of “sick and evil minds”.
The Timesnewspaper in South Africa ran a story claiming Mr Mugabe had sought medical attention in a United Arab Emirates hospital on Sunday after suffering the scare upon his arrival back in Harare last Wednesday from a trip to Namibia. According to the newspaper's sources, Mr Mugabe turned up at Harare International airport later in the week without his usual fanfare and entourage looking gaunt, and boarded a scheduled Air Zimbabwe flight to Dubai with his wife, Amai Grace.
The 85-year-old president has not been seen in public since early last week, and he was conspicuously absent from the funeral of long-time struggle colleague and Zanu-PF member Senator Richard Hove, who was buried last Friday.
It is thought Mr Mugabe maybe seeking treatment in relation to a problem with his prostate, and is being looked after by Malaysian urologist Awang Kechik, a specialist who has treated him a number of times in the past.
Rumours about Mr Mugabe’s ailing health surface in the region from time to time, but the veteran leader has never publicly admitted to suffering from any long-term life-threatening illnesses.
The demise of Mr Mugabe would have serious consequences for the country’s struggling transitional government, given his death would open a political vacuum that a number of his powerful hard-line party members would be keen to fill. Officially, Zanu-PF members are saying Mr Mugabe has been away on holiday, but due back on Tuesday to prepare for the visit of South African president Jacob Zuma.
“The president is not sick but was away on holiday. He returned home yesterday, and those reports are a load of rubbish that we get from sick and evil minds,” one Zimbabwean official told reporters.
The newly-appointed Mr Zuma is travelling to Zimbabwe to address an agricultural trade fair, but it is understood he will talk to Mr Mugabe about the issues blocking the full implementation of Zimbabwe’s powersharing deal.
Yesterday the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) handed a memo to the African National Congress in Johannesburg, appealing for Mr Zuma’s help. Among other things, the MDC wants the persecution and harassment of its members by the security forces to stop, and the reappointment by Mr Mugabe of reserve bank governor Gideon Gono and attorney general Johannes Tomana overturned, as they are loyal to Zanu-PF.