Zimbabwe’s Mugabe in Singapore for medical treatment, unable to walk

Former Zimbabwean leader Robert Mugabe has been receiving
medical treatment in Singapore for the last two months and is no
longer able to walk, though he should return home next week,
President Emmerson Mnangagwa said on Saturday.

Mugabe, 94, who ruled the southern African nation for nearly
four decades since independence from Britain in 1980, was forced to
resign in November 2017 after an army coup.

Mnangagwa told ruling ZANU-PF supporters at a rally in
Murombedzi, Mugabe’s village some 100 km (60 miles) west of the
capital Harare, his predecessor had been due to return on Oct. 15
but that his poor health had delayed the journey.

He did not say what treatment Mugabe had been undergoing.

“We have just received a message that he is better now and will
return on Nov. 30. He can no longer walk but we will continue
taking care of him,” Mnangagwa said, referring to Mugabe by his
totem name Gushungo.

During his later years in power, Mugabe made several medical
trips to Singapore.

Officials often said he was being treated for a cataract,
denying frequent reports by private local media that he had
prostate cancer.

Mnangagwa, who won a disputed July 30 presidential vote,
repeated the army’s previous justification for last year’s coup,
saying his former mentor Mugabe had been surrounded by
criminals.

When the army rolled its tanks into Harare, military leaders
said they were targeting “criminals around the president.” A bitter
Mugabe said later, however, that the army’s action had forced him
to resign.

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