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.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
