President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe Scoffs At Ill Health Talk

President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe speaking at the 60th anniversary conference of the United Nations Food Programme.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos

President scoffs at ill health talk .

Sunday, 23 January 2011 22:18
Zimbabwe Herald
By Tendai Mugabe

WESTERN media reports that President Mugabe’s health has deteriorated and that he had to undergo surgery in Malaysia earlier this month are the “usual rhetoric” accompanying his annual leave.

Soon after touching down at the Harare International Airport yesterday morning, the Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces said he had not even been to Malaysia.

He was holidaying with his family in Singapore, which is near Hong Kong where his daughter Bona is pursuing university studies.

The President said rumours about his supposed ill-health were now a staple of Western reportage whenever he went on his annual leave.

“Ko ndozvavanotauraka. I was not in Malaysia — so those are the lies they always put across from year to year. Now it’s something you expect each time I go on leave that they also go on their campaigns,” he said.

The international media, led by Britain’s Daily Telegraph, were last week awash with claims that President Mugabe’s health had deteriorated and he had to undergo an unnamed surgical operation in Malaysia.

Some reports even went to the ex-tent of claiming he was on his death-bed.

In an interview with Reuters last year, President Mugabe said: “I don’t know how many times I die but nobody has ever talked about my resurrection.

“I suppose they don’t want to, becau-se it would mean they would mention my resurrection several times and that would be quite divine, an achievement for an individual who is not divine.”

Zanu-PF Politburo member and Tsholotsho North House of Assembly Member Professor Jonathan Moyo was last week quoted by some sections of the media as saying rumours about President Mugabe’s health were an “annual ritual” for foreign correspondents, particularly during his yearly leave.

“Who are these people? Are they witches or are they Good Samaritans genuinely concerned about the President’s health? What is it about this time every year that they peddle this tired story?

“If the President has flu, and he goes to see his doctor, they start sneezing everywhere.

“We are sick and tired of this annual ritual. These people who have become specialists at peddling this story must prove their lies and leave us alone.

“They start a rumour and when they realise they can’t give substance to it, they start calling us for comments, asking us to deny or confirm their rubbish as if that is our responsibility.”-The Herald