FORMER President Robert Mugabe and his family are expected to leave the country shortly for their annual break in the Far East, it has emerged.
The government would, as ever, pick up the tab, our sources said this week.
While in power, Mugabe hardly took his annual holidays at home, usually leaving Harare in December and returning in February before his birthday celebrations.
Singapore – where he would also travel regularly for medical treatment – became a favourite bolt-hole after he was banned from Western capitals over allegations of rights abuses and electoral chicanery.
And the city State remains a preferred foreign destination after Mugabe’s forced and acrimonious ‘retirement’ last November.
The veteran leader and his family are still being looked after by the successor administration of former protégé Emmerson Mnangagwa, or so the latter claims.
Now 94, Mugabe only recently returned home from Singapore after undergoing treatment for an undisclosed ailment for two months.
Mnangagwa told a political rally last month that the former Zanu PF leader was so poorly that he was no longer able to walk.
The claim was however, denied by National Patriotic Front (NPF) spokesman, Jealousy Mawarire who said Mnangagwa “lies more than he tells the truth”.
Maware often speaks for the Mugabes as well.
NewZimbabwe.com was told that Mugabe’s health “is in keeping with his age” and that there was contact with the Mnangagwa administration “through the relevant institutions of the State”. – NewZim
