Zimbabwe: Mugabe trip not medical related
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Robert Mugabe
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HARARE, Zimbabwe (Reuters) -- Zimbabwe said Monday President Robert Mugabe had flown to neighboring South Africa on a private visit but denied media reports he had gone for medical treatment.
The South African Broadcasting Corporation reported on Saturday that Mugabe, who turns 80 next month, had arrived on a secret visit, sparking frenzied media speculation that he was ill. The Business Day newspaper said that would fuel debate within his ruling ZANU-PF party over who would succeed him.
"The president is as fit as none of his detractors can ever hope to be in their lifetime," Monday's official Herald newspaper quoted Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba as saying.
"Comrade Charamba said President Mugabe was on leave and had, in the context of that leave, gone to South Africa strictly on private and not official business," the Herald said.
Government officials said Mugabe had returned to Harare early Monday, and Zimbabwe state television broadcast a video clip of Mugabe receiving a visiting Libyan government envoy at his State House official residence Monday afternoon.
Mugabe looked his usual self in the television clip.
Last week the leaders of South Africa and Nigeria said Mugabe had agreed to go into formal talks with the opposition -- a step that is seen as crucial to resolving the political and economic crises gripping his once prosperous nation.
ZANU-PF walked out of talks with the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change in 2002 after it went to court to challenge Mugabe's re-election in a poll several international observers said was rigged.
Mugabe insists he won fairly and has previously said he would not resume formal dialogue until the MDC's legal challenge is dropped. The opposition says no conditions must be attached to the talks.
Rumors swirled last October that Mugabe had been secretly flown to South Africa for medical treatment but officials denied the reports and the Zimbabwe leader appeared on state television soon after with no visible signs of ill health.
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Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
