Mugabe reportedly very sick
Robert Mugabe – Photo: AP
By Brian Mulenga
Information coming from Harare is that President Robert Mugabe is reported to be in a coma in Dubai and his vice Emmerson Munangagwa will be sworn in as interim President.
Apparently he was feeling unwell and was on his way to Singapore when he suffered a stroke and lost consciousness. His plane declared an onboard emergency and turned back to Lusaka to refuel and receive further instructions. The plane then took off for Dubai.
No one in government is making any announcements but word of handover procedures have been activated and Munangagwa will take over, explained a source.
Already the knives are out and if indeed President Mugabe is incapacitated a 90 day transition may soon start.
The ruling party ZANU-PF is riven by factionalism and the future may be full of uncertainity.
But when contacted for comment by News24, Mugabe’s spokesperson laughed off the reports, saying that he would only comment on actual news stories.
“My laughter should be enough to answer these reports. Just because it is reported, it does not make them true and I have no further comment on these stories,” George Charamba said.
Zimbabwe is in the middle of horrible economic crisis with no solution in sight. Cash is hard to find, prices are dropping and business are laying people off.
Cash issues have become so desperate that hard assets are now available at a discount with houses, cars and farms available at low prices.
The government is failing to raise revenue to meet basic bills with salaries alone being higher than revenue collected. The government is only raising $240 to $260 Million a month while the Salary bill is estimated at more than $300 Million.