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Stringer / Reuters
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is greeted by Vice President Joice Mujuru as he returns home to Harare, April 12, 2012, after a trip to Singapore that had ignited speculation the veteran leader was seriously ill.
President Robert Mugabe returned home on Thursday, looking fit after a trip to Singapore that had ignited speculation the veteran Zimbabwean leader was seriously ill.
The 88-year-old president, who has ruled the southern African country for more than three decades, landed at Harare's main airport in a chartered plane accompanied by his wife Grace.
Information minister Webster Shamu blamed Western media for spreading rumors about Mugabe's health. Media had speculated that Mugabe went for vital medical attention in Singapore, where he traveled for check-ups eight times last year.
"As you can see, he is fit as a fiddle. Why do we spread rumors? It's all lies told by a press driving an imperialist agenda," Shamu told a group of reporters at the airport.
Three hours after his arrival just after 7 a.m., Mugabe was chairing a weekly cabinet meeting that had been rescheduled from Tuesday, senior government officials told Reuters.
Zimbabwe says leader isn’t dying, just on vacation
Mugabe went round the cabinet room greeting and laughing with ministers, including those from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), led by his bitter rival Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the officials said.
Mugabe and Tsvangirai share power in a fragile coalition formed three years ago.
A Reuters reporter had earlier seen Mugabe at the airport joking and laughing with Vice President Joice Mujuru, a possible successor.
The former guerrilla leader has been the subject of several health scares, with some reports saying he has prostate cancer, but in February interviews with state media he laughed off suggestions that he was seriously ill.
Mugabe and close aides have kept his health a closely guarded secret.
Some members of his ZANU-PF party are afraid that, should Mugabe die in office without settling a bitter succession battle, the party could erupt in internal conflict and destabilize the country.
Although ZANU-PF officials rally behind Mugabe in public, in private many want him to retire and pass the baton to a younger person as they fear his advanced age may cost the party victory in an upcoming election.
But while some ZANU-PF members see Mugabe as a political liability, they recognize him as the only person able to control the highly partisan Zimbabwean army led by veterans of the 1970s independence war.
Many are also unsure whether his potential successors can defeat ZANU-PF's most formidable opponent, Tsvangirai, in a free election. Elections must be held by next year under the terms of their power-sharing deal.
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A shame he didn't return 'dead as a doornail.'
He is a man who has run the country to ruins. Zimbabwe use to be africas bread basket now it cant even feed its own people. Now hard feelings for him.
This guy has never done anything to the people of this country. I do not understand why so much hate, so much disrespect for a leader of an independent country. Those people who hurl insults right and left at people whom they have never met are wrong to believe that they have the God-given right to do so. Please read about corruption of politicians, about crime, about poverty, about hunger, about homelessness, about unemployment of this great country before condemning other countries and their leaders. This is the "richest" country in the world and yet it seems that the culture of reading and learning about geography and world history has been severely handicapped.
well i regard my self well versed in history and culture of different countries. America only has only about 300 years if of culture. Most of europe has culture in thousands and they brought the little bit to USA to make it a melting pot. I still say Mugabe ran a country to ground. THere is no freedom of speech or democracy to say. Its all smoke and mirrors. America has its own problems but its nowhere near comparable.
D.Gabriel I agree with you in part. America has plenty of corruption and problems. However that does not change the reality in Zimbabwe. The fact is that Rhodesia had a vibrant economy, well-developed infrastructure, was a net exporter of food, and the citizens had a good quality of life, low crime rates, and high incomes compared to most African countries. After Robert Mugabe took over, everything quickly went downhill. Insulting people who know these facts will not change the facts.
"The Cross and The Lynching Tree" is the latest book I am reading about this country. I strongly recommend it to those who pretend to be versed in history, and who have funny names in this forum. Keep on lynching the whole world if it gives you any satisfaction and pleasure for all I care!
The non-existent Zimbabwean economy is inconsequential where this man is concerned. Mugabe is a man who organized and utilized paramilitary organizations to commit systematic rape as a means of suppress political opposition; he's also tortured opposition members, criminalized homosexuality, and embezzled billions (USD) out of Zimbabwean coffers while an estimated 68% of Zimbabweans continue to live below the poverty line. He should be sent to The Hague, let alone be universally reviled.
Over one million Iraqis were killed during the invasion, according to the California-based investigative organization Project Censored. All the killings, rapes & destruction of Iraq were based on lies created by BUSH & Blair. These two criminals should have been sent to the The Hague. Unfortunetly as the West is still in the "lynch the black man" mode, it is refusing to admit its own criminality.
I'm Canadian, I was against the Iraq war from the start, and I'm proud of my government for abstaining from the war, for not assuming the role of deputy to America's world sheriff. Bush and Blair should be sent to the Hague, and so should Mugabe.
Tom- It just happens that I do not belong to the Nazi party and I refuse to be brainwashed by the main stream media!
Well d gabriel. I do not know whats up with u but u surely do have the biggest chip on your shoulder. the fact is Mugabe ran the country down to the gutters. Its got nothing to do with your comments about lynching and iraqi wars. we all know america got a big race problem. And is people like u who keep it going by bringing back times gone by. Get a life.
Fact is also that from the start, as soon as he took over Zimbabwe, he started in attacking both UK and USA, and just about everyone else. Hard to make friends if all you do is attack them politically. On top of that, you create a regime that is based on repression of political rights and economic redistribution based on cronyism, and you have a very ripe atmosphere for hate being directed at them.
So I would argue the point that he never did anything to the US. Maybe no military attacks, but the rhetoric was poisonous from the start.
He's typical of those who believe in redistribution of the wealth. Redistribution was from his opponents, particularly the white ones, to his friends and cronies. Broke big prosperpous farms that employed hundreds and fed millions up into little tracts that even experienced farmers would've been hard-pressed to have fed their own families from, and gave them to people who for the most part had been urban-dwellers with no concept of how to farm. Went from being the "breadbasket of Africa" to a basket-case. Inflated the currency so badly that everyone for a while became a billionaire, then had to abolish the native currency altogether and use ours. He's as incompetent and corrupt as he is tough, resilient, and cunning.
Robert Mugabe is one of the few leaders in the world who makes Obama look good in comparison. America is headed towards a Zimbabwean future.
d gabriel. I thought this discussion was about the tyrant Mugabe. Not Iraq.
Sure the ZANU-PF leaders can't be worried all that much about losing the next election. It didn't stop them from staying in power after they lost the last one!