President Robert Mugabe’s health has been a subject of speculation each time he sneaks out of the country.
The last time he visited Singapore, there were even reports, sparked by an online news website, that he had died.
His spin doctors were forced to work overtime to prove that the 88-year-old leader was “as fit as a fiddle” and went to the extent of inviting journalists to see Mugabe arriving at Harare International Airport from Singapore in the early hours of the morning.
To avoid a repeat of the hullabaloo about his allged deteriorating health, when he flew back to the Asian country on Monday, State-owned ZBC Radio was the first to announce that Mugabe had left the country for a routine medical check-up.
Last year, the veteran ruler visited Singapore severally and each time, State media was used to rebuff reports that he was seeking medical treatment.
Mugabe finally admitted in January this year that he had gone for cataract surgery, but few Zimbabweans believed him as reports persisted that he was suffering from prostate cancer.
Analysts yesterday said the Zanu PF leader’s handlers were in a dilemma to manage his health problems at a time when he was vigorously pushing for new elections this year.
Pedzisayi Ruhanya, a political analyst, said the move to make Mugabe’s private trip for medical reasons public was a positive development.
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“The President is a Head of State and the citizens have the right to know his health status. They have to live up to reality in order to avoid speculation,” Ruhanya said.
“What we may not know is the extent of the medical check-up, the nature of the ailment, but at least we have known that he has gone out for a medical check-up. It is good practice and this will stop any misrepresentations on the Internet about the President’s health.”
Last year, leaked United States diplomatic cables revealed that senior Zanu PF officials felt that Mugabe’s health was deteriorating. Some claimed that he suffered from advanced prostate cancer and had been given a few years to live.
Mugabe last month told a Zanu PF women’s conference that his opponents wished him dead, but insisted he was still healthy.
He said those who claimed he was sick and may not be able to stand the rigours of a presidential campaign were themselves surviving on ARVs.
First Lady Grace Mugabe also waded into the debate claiming in an interview with State media that most of the trips they made to Singapore were for her to receive treatment after she was injured at the gym.
Analysts said Zanu PF had realised that Mugabe’s health would be a serious election issue and had moved in to manage it.
“The climbdown clearly confirms that in the world of propaganda or strategic misinformation, some issues cannot be misrepresented sustainably, especially matters relating to someone’s health,” said Jack Zaba, a Harare-based political analyst.
“I believe Zanu PF have come to the realisation that all their previous efforts at misrepresenting the purpose of Mugabe’s medical visits have at least found no takers, and at worst attracted shame on the President himself.
“Therefore, they cannot sustain it any longer, especially on matters relating to his health, whose fate lies not in the hands of mere mortals in Zanu PF.”
Meanwhile, Mugabe’s spokesperson George Charamba yesterday admitted government was obsessed with “stifling the free flow of accurate information” even on what he termed “mundane issues”.
Charamba, who is also the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Media, Information and Publicity, said they had moved from a position of denial to providing accurate information timeously.
“There is a lot of secrecy around many issues. I think there is something wrong about our classification of information in the government across all sectors,” he said.
“We are shortchanging the people. However, now you might have seen that we moved away from denial to communicating,” said Charamba in his address at an editors’ workshop in Kadoma. — Additional reporting by our Chinhoyi Correspondent.
