I’m responding well to treatment – Tsvangirai

Port Elizabeth – Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader and former prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, says he is responding well to what has been described as a routine medical procedure, after being airlifted to SA from Zimbabwe last week.

Source: I’m responding well to treatment – Tsvangirai | News24 2017-09-18

Reports last week indicated that the 65-year-old had fallen ill during an MDC Alliance strategic meeting in Kadoma on Thursday.

The report said he had returned to Harare, where his condition had worsened, leading to him being airlifted to SA in the early hours of Friday morning, September 15.

In 2016, Tsvangirai announced that he had been diagnosed with cancer of the colon and that he had begun chemotherapy.

Tsvangirai’s spokesperson and director of communications for the Movement of Democratic Change, Luke Tamborinyoka, said he had personally spoken to Tsvangirai on Monday morning.

He said Tsvangirai, who was being accompanied by his wife, had given assurances that he was responding well to treatment and had urged Zimbabweans not to panic.

“President Tsvangirai said there was no need for national alarm about his condition, adding that several prophets of doom were keen on creating despondency by pouring cold water on the emerging convergence in the country on which Zimbabweans have pinned their hope,” said Tamborinyoka.

“He said, like everyone else, he is mortal, but regretted that naysayers had begun a desperate campaign to feed on his temporary indisposition by spreading alarm and despondency in the nation,” he said.

Tamborinyoka said Tsvangirai had indicated that he would be returning to Zimbabwe soon, to campaign ahead of the 2018 elections.