joeSoap
07/06/2005, 10:30 AM
The Zimbabwe government today denied rumours about the supposed death of President Robert Mugabe, with a spokesman describing the 81-year-old ``as fit as a teenager''.
Mugabe, in power since 1980 independence, ``scoffed at rumours doing rounds in Harare that he died last week following heart failure,'' said the government mouthpiece, The Herald.
``I told the president that he is reportedly dead from last week as a result of heart failure. He said, `When did I die and where?''' Mugabe's press secretary George Charamba told The Herald.
``He is as fit as a teenager. He is in the best of health and is at work.
"Those doubting can check on Thursday when he addresses Parliament,'' Charamba said.
The previous week, the privately-owned weekly newspaper, The Independent, reported Mugabe had been seen going in his heavily guarded motorcade to an expensive clinic where cardiac tests were done.
The Herald linked the rumours to opposition plans to launch a nationwide strike on Thursday and Friday to protest mass arrests of street traders and demolition of ``unauthorised housing,'' leaving an estimated 200,000 people without shelter in midwinter cold.
The blitz has been condemned internationally.
Zimbabwe's opposition party, which has its base of support among the urban poor, says the move is aimed at driving city dwellers to rural areas where they can be controlled politically by denial of access to food as hunger grows.
Mugabe, in power since 1980 independence, ``scoffed at rumours doing rounds in Harare that he died last week following heart failure,'' said the government mouthpiece, The Herald.
``I told the president that he is reportedly dead from last week as a result of heart failure. He said, `When did I die and where?''' Mugabe's press secretary George Charamba told The Herald.
``He is as fit as a teenager. He is in the best of health and is at work.
"Those doubting can check on Thursday when he addresses Parliament,'' Charamba said.
The previous week, the privately-owned weekly newspaper, The Independent, reported Mugabe had been seen going in his heavily guarded motorcade to an expensive clinic where cardiac tests were done.
The Herald linked the rumours to opposition plans to launch a nationwide strike on Thursday and Friday to protest mass arrests of street traders and demolition of ``unauthorised housing,'' leaving an estimated 200,000 people without shelter in midwinter cold.
The blitz has been condemned internationally.
Zimbabwe's opposition party, which has its base of support among the urban poor, says the move is aimed at driving city dwellers to rural areas where they can be controlled politically by denial of access to food as hunger grows.