{{Zimbabwe’s 90-year-old President Robert Mugabe is in Singapore for “another routine eye check-up”, his spokesman said on Thursday, playing down concerns about the health of the veteran African leader who has no obvious successor.}}
Mugabe had a cataract operation in Singapore on the eve of his 90th birthday in February, officials said, and his visits to the southeastern Asian state have become more frequent over the last couple of years amid fears for his health.
Spokesman George Charamba said Mugabe – who denies he has prostate cancer or any other serious illness – would be away for a week and would undergo a “routine eye check-up following a recent procedure on the same”.
When he addressed an independence anniversary rally on April 18, a squinting Mugabe struggled to read his speech and his eyes appeared swollen when he removed his spectacles.
His health is a concern for Zimbabweans who fear instability if Mugabe dies in office without resolving a succession battle raging in his ZANU-PF party, which has ruled the southern African country since independence from Britain in 1980.
Vice-President Joice Mujuru and Justice Minister Emmerson Mnangagwa are seen as the front-runners, but Mugabe, Africa’s oldest president, recently confirmed that the contest was open to other ZANU-PF leaders as well.
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