Source: LATEST- Govt Pays Mugabe’s Singapore Medical Trip | ZimEye
The government is picking up the tab for former president Robert Mugabe, 93, who has flown to Singapore for a medical check-up, his ex-spokesperson said on Thursday.
Mugabe and his wife Grace have not been seen in public since he was forced to resign after a military takeover brought a sudden end to his authoritarian 37-year reign.
“He is in Singapore. It’s part of his package as a retired president to travel overseas. He routinely goes to Singapore to meet with his doctors,” George Charamba told AFP.
Charamba, who is now President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s spokesperson, said that the new government was keen to show respect to Mugabe.
“There is no quest to humiliate or ostracise him,” he said.
“The idea was to extricate him from the clutches of the cabal which had captured him. That has been done so that his legacy comes out shining.”
Shattered economy
The military stepped in on November 14 and ushered Mnangagwa into office after a power struggle with supporters of Grace Mugabe, 52, who had emerged as Mugabe’s chosen successor.
Mugabe, who ruled Zimbabwe from independence in 1980, is accused of brutal repression and bringing the country to economic ruin.
He has been in increasingly frail health and has reportedly battled prostate cancer.
In recent years he has made regular trips abroad for undisclosed medical reasons.
Mnangagwa was formerly one of Mugabe’s closest allies, and the ruling Zanu-PF party remains in control.
Mugabe will miss the party’s annual conference in Harare on Friday when Mnangagwa is expected to be confirmed as its candidate for elections next year.
The new president has vowed to revive the shattered economy by boosting agricultural production and attracting foreign investment.
COMMENTS
“his legacy comes out shining” – ha!ha!ha!ha!ha! What a bl**dy joke !!! He wrecked a country, killed thousands in the process, generally created a laughing stock not just of Zimbabwe but the whole of Africa. And still he is milking the country when in fact he should be facing a criminal court.
This very very disappointing.
I was hoping desperately that our new Government would have forced Mugabe to seek medical treatment at the Parirenyatwa General in Harare, just like the rest of us have had to endure.
Because after all, was it not he that wrecked all our medical institutions? Then why should he not taste that lack of medical attention, that we have been forced to suffer for those past 37 years?
Now all I must do is hope and pray that he will not be allowed to take his usual entourage of 40 parasites, on a per diem allowance of US$600.00 a day each, as they did on their many past jaunts to Singapore.
And I also must hope and pray that Greedy Grace, and her crazy kids, are not able to shop till they drop like in the past…and all at our expense.
And finally, of course, that she leaves her long and thick extension cable, with its large heavy plug attached, safely locked up at Blue Roof!