Robert Mugabe, the 94-year-old former president of Zimbabwe, is no longer able to walk because of ill health and age.
Robert Mugabe, the 94-year-old former
president of Zimbabwe, is no longer able to walk because of ill health and age.
The announcement was made by his successor, President
Emmerson Mnangagwa, who said on Saturday that the former leader has been
receiving treatment in Singapore for the past two months.
"He is now old. Of course, he now is unable to
walk but whatever he asks for we will provide," Mnangagwa told hundreds of
supporters in Mugabe's home area of Zvimba, about 100km west of the capital,
Harare.
"We are looking after him," added Mnangagwa,
calling Mugabe the "founding father of free Zimbabwe".
The president did not give further details about the
condition of Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe for nearly four decades since independence
from Britain in 1980,
Mugabe was expected to return from Singapore in late
October, but his health required him to stay an extra month, according to
Mnangagwa.
He added that the former president is expected to return
home at the end of November.
This month marked the one-year anniversary since
Mugabe's resignation in the wake of a military intervention.
Days before the army's move, Mugabe had dismissed his
then-vice president and close aide Mnangagwa, who went on to become the
country's president and leader of the ruling ZANU-PF party.
In July, the 75-year-old Mnangagwa won heavily
disputed presidential elections, narrowly exceeding the 50 percent threshold
required to secure an outright victory.
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