Mugabe off to Singapore for medical checks

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe left the country on Monday night to Singapore for medical checks, a government statement confirmed.

The last time he flew out for medical checks was on March 1 this year, this is his second medical trip to the south Asian nation within a two month period.

The last condition his aides said the nonagenarian was suffering from was eye cataract. The opposition has, however, insisted that the president was battling cancer, a claim Mugabe’s handlers have refuted.

The 93-year-old is Zimbabwe’s only political leader (Prime Minister and President) since independence in 1980. His health is a hot topic ahead of a presidential election scheduled for next year where he is the candidate of the ZANU-PF party.

President off to Singapore https://t.co/0VSwnfEkN8 pic.twitter.com/Aebd2Whrrz

— The Herald Zimbabwe (@HeraldZimbabwe) May 9, 2017

The Ministry of Information said he was expected to return home at the weekend. Mugabe now struggles to walk, with security aides forming a human shield around him in public. His last public outing was last week during the World Economic Forum Summit in neighbouring South Africa.

A visibly exhausted Mugabe told a panel discussion in a low murmur that his country was not a “fragile state,” and that it was the continent’s second most developed country next to South Africa.

Critics say his infirmities make him unfit to hold office, a position the courts have disagreed with. The veteran leader continues to hold tight control over his ZANU-PF party.

In February he said the party and Zimbabwe’s people saw no viable alternative candidate to him for next year’s elections.