Rumours swirled in Zimbabwe on Friday that Vice-President John Landa Nkomo had died in a South African hospital.
Nkomo was flown to South Africa after the burial of Retired General Solomon Mujuru on Saturday for medical attention.
NewsDay was inundated with callers seeking to verify the rumour, which both the government and Nkomo’s family dismissed.
“It’s not true. I was speaking to him just now and dead people don’t talk,” the Vice-President’s son, Jabulani, told NewsDay last night.
Media Information and Publicity minister Webster Shamu also dismissed the rumour.
“It’s not true at all. These are the usual rumours that are thrown around by our detractors who do not seem to wish us well,” he said.
A visit to the Vice-President’s Harare homes in Milton Park and Greendale Friday night, also revealed no scenes of a funeral wake.
The rumour started in the afternoon, with the mill saying Nkomo had not recovered since his health deteriorated after the General’s burial.
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The Vice-President was visibly sick at the national shrine, where he had to walk with the help of a walking stick, supported by two aides.
He immediately flew back to South Africa where he had reportedly been constantly admitted at a private hospital.
Nkomo’s condition last week forced President Robert Mugabe to appoint a grieving Vice-President Joice Mujuru to be Acting President when he left for the Sadc summit in Angola.
Lands and Rural Resettlement minister Hebert Murerwa is also admitted at a South African hospital, receiving treatment for cancer of the colon.
