Mugabe trip fuels new health fears

Published on Friday 4 March 2011 16:39

ROBERT Mugabe, Zimbabwe's leader for the past 30 years, has flown to Singapore for a medical check, his fourth visit there this year, his spokesman revealed yesterday.

Presidential spokesman George Charamba said that Mugabe, 87, left on Thursday for a medical examination after undergoing routine cataract surgery in Singapore in January. He is expected home on Sunday, state media reported.

"There is nothing to cause any alarm" over Mugabe's health, Mr Charamba said.

At celebrations marking his birthday on 21 February, an increasingly frail Mugabe said even if his body "may get spent," his mind remained alert.

Mugabe has spent seven weeks in Asia since December - a month for medical purposes - fuelling doubts about his health. Officials have dismissed reports he has had treatment for prostate cancer.

Eldred Masunungure, director of Zimbabwe's Mass Public Opinion Institute, said recent questions about Mugabe's health raise uncertainty, but that even if the elderly president were to die, his military-political machine would remain strong.

"The system is not going away if an individual dies," added Susan Booysen, a South African pollster.

A survey released on Friday, conducted late last year by Freedom House and the Mass Public Opinion Institute, shows 75 per cent of Zimbabweans believe Mugabe is mainly or solely in control, and 45 per cent believe his Zanu-PF party has not lost its grip on power.