{"id":28296,"date":"2016-09-03T06:15:20","date_gmt":"2016-09-03T06:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/yes-i-was-dead-jokes-mugabe-on-return-to-zimbabwe\/"},"modified":"2016-09-03T06:15:08","modified_gmt":"2016-09-03T06:15:08","slug":"yes-i-was-dead-jokes-mugabe-on-return-to-zimbabwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/yes-i-was-dead-jokes-mugabe-on-return-to-zimbabwe\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Yes, I was dead,&#8217; jokes Mugabe on return to Zimbabwe"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{Following a brief period of absence that led to rumours Mugabe was ill, the world&#8217;s oldest head of state returns home.}<\/p>\n<p>Zimbabwe&#8217;s 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe arrived home after an overseas absence that led to intense speculation about his health and joked to journalists that he had come back to life.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Yes, I was dead, it&#8217;s true I was dead. I resurrected as I always do. Once I get back to my country I am real,&#8221; the world&#8217;s oldest head of state said on Saturday after arriving in the capital Harare.<\/p>\n<p>He had left a regional summit on Tuesday, but flight data showed his plane went to Dubai after an original flight path indicated a course toward Asia. Mugabe has received treatment in Singapore in the past.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I had gone on a family matter to Dubai concerning one of my children,&#8221; he told reporters, without giving details.<\/p>\n<p>His spokesman had denied reports that Mugabe, the target of near-daily protests in recent weeks, was ill.<\/p>\n<p>The leader was expected to address a youth meeting at his ruling party&#8217;s headquarters later on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>His absence had raised the level of uncertainly in a country already in economic and political turmoil. Frustration has been rising in Zimbabwe over a plummeting economy and allegations of government corruption.<\/p>\n<p>Police on Thursday banned protests in the capital for two weeks, on the eve of a demonstration planned by a newly formed coalition of opposition groups.<\/p>\n<p>Mugabe has been in power since 1980, and many in Zimbabwe have known no other leader in their lifetime.<\/p>\n<p>He has said he will run again in elections scheduled for 2018.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, his wife, Grace, said Mugabe would rule from the grave.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"spip-document spip-document-14760 aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/jpg\/c85f09a78dd04954b014293cbb1b1e1e_18.jpg\" alt=\"At 92 years old, Mugabe is the world&#039;s oldest head of state\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{Following a brief period of absence that led to rumours Mugabe was ill, the world&#8217;s oldest head of state returns home.} Zimbabwe&#8217;s 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe arrived home after an overseas absence that led to intense speculation about his health and joked to journalists that he had come back to life. &#8220;Yes, I was dead, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-28296","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28296","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28296"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=28296"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=28296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}