Zimbabwe: Mugabe's prolonged leave sparks talk of ill health

In a move that is raising eyebrows in Zimbabwe‚ Vice-President Joice Mujuru‚ the frontrunner to succeed 89-year-old President Robert Mugabe‚ will continue her unusually long stint as acting head of state until the end of this month.

This is understood to be the longest period that Ms Mujuru has served as acting president‚ having temporarily taken over last month. Mr Mugabe is on his annual leave but there has been speculation in social media about the state of his health since returning home from Singapore last weekend.

He turns 90 on 21 February and is serving his seventh term after he and the ruling Zanu (PF) party scored landslide wins in last year’s general elections.

Zimbabwe’s internet mole‚ Baba Jukwa‚ kicked off the speculation about the president on Facebook‚ alleging that he was seriously ill. Zanu (PF) officials trashed talk of Mr Mugabe’s ill health as "absolute nonsense" designed to cause "fear‚ alarm and despondency".

But Zimbabweans noted the absence of any topical official pictures of the veteran ruler’s homecoming from his holiday break in the Far East. Instead state media used archive photographs in reports on Mr Mugabe’s return.

The Herald newspaper ran a picture of him returning from an African Union summit held in Addis Ababa‚ Ethiopia‚ in January last year. The president was last seen in public on 29 December‚ as he left for the Far East‚ and previously on 22 December‚ while presiding over the unveiling of a statue in honour of the late vice-president‚ Joshua Nkomo‚ in Bulawayo.
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