Zimbabwe says Mugabe is 'well and fine'

The Zimbabwe government on Thursday denied reports that veteran President Robert Mugabe, 91, had collapsed and died in Singapore after rumours spread rapidly about his alleged ill health.


Under the headline "President well, fine", the state-run Herald newspaper said stories about Mugabe's health emerged each year when he took his annual leave outside the country.


"You cannot doubt that there will be a story on the President's alleged death every January," presidential spokesman George Charamba told the paper.


Charamba blamed the ZimEye news website for starting the rumours.


"This is the way the website seeks to improve its hits in order to get dirty money... There is a financial incentive to the grim lie," he added.The Herald said that Mugabe was in the "Far East" but did not specify which country.The president, who is the world's oldest national leader, has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980.Despite his age, he continues to give long speeches in public, but speculation over his health mounted last year when he tripped and fell down some steps at a televised ceremony.


He also read a speech to parliament in September apparently unaware that he had delivered the same address a month earlier.WikiLeaks in 2011 released a 2008 US diplomatic cable saying that Mugabe was reported to have prostate cancer and had less than five years to live.His regime is accused of systematic human rights abuses and overseeing Zimbabwe's dire economic decline.The ruling ZANU-PF party has been riven by factionalism for years with Mugabe avoiding naming a successor.Senior Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa is seen as one front-runner to be the next president. -AFP

AFP. "Zimbabwe Says Mugabe Is 'well and Fine'" Times Live. Times Media Group, 14 Jan. 2016. Web. 14 Jan. 2016.

http://www.timeslive.co.za/africa/2016/01/14/Zimbabwe-says-Mugabe-is-well-and-fine

Zimbabwe is beautiful. I have driven through it many a time and it is a beautiful country with so much potential. Although there is no named author to this article he does seem have a bias against Mugabe and hints at his dislike for the president. Since all I've heard and grown up in also presents him in a bad light I also have a bias against him compared to other western individuals who might read this article. Where they may pity the president for having a press that fakes his death to earn money, I have little sympathy for the man after all the damage I've seen and heard done, initiating with his rule. It was very interesting to note how long this obvious dislike for the president has been going on and yet how long his rule continues. This is definitely evidence that his rule is a rule of iron rod and terror. The South African newspaper that publishes this article clearly provides outside perspective to the situation and presents evidence that South Africa keeps an eye on their neighbor considering the dislike for the man presented in the article. I find it extremely tragic when I consider the pain Zimbabwe goes through because of one man. One man that could make them extremely successful, one man that was to stubborn to listen, one man that's too proud to step down. It's a truly tragic situation when the country's press feeds on any news that the president is suffering and dying, and yet considering the decades of no compassion for his own people, it is to be expected.