By Thelma Chikwanha, Community Affairs Editor
HARARE – President Robert Mugabe’s failing health has been laid bare after he was spotted at a top private hospital in Singapore that specialises in cancer. New information from leaked US diplomatic cables shows the 87-year-old could have been receiving medical help for cancer at a major hospital in Singapore.
Mugabe visited Singapore several times between December and January this year for what his spokesman said were routine tests for a troubling eye cataract. But diplomatic cables posted by whistle blower website, WikiLeaks, show that Mugabe could have started getting support for a grave cancer condition from the Asian country as back as 2008.
Another leaked cable, one of Mugabe’s foremost propagandists, Jonathan Moyo also let the cat out of the bag when he told a US official in 2007 that “President Robert Mugabe has throat cancer.” A year after Moyo’s revelations, Mugabe was spotted at a radiation oncologist’s office in Singapore, the diplomatic cables reveal.
The WikiLeaks website said Mugabe was spotted by an American resident who also happened to be a patient of the Singaporean oncologist. The oncologist is based at Gleneagles Hospital, a 272-bed private institution.
“A reputable private-sector source told CDA (Chargé d’Affaires) that he saw Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe arrive in the office of a radiation oncologist at Gleneagles, a major hospital in Singapore, on December 29.”
“The source, an American resident in Singapore who is a patient of the radiation oncologist, personally observed Mugabe’s arrival at the clinic.
“The source added that he asked the physician to confirm that it was in fact Mugabe, and the physician did so,” read part of a cable dispatched by Joel Ehrendreich, an embassy official. A radiation oncologist specialises in treating cancer patients.
In the cable, Ehrendreich said this was not the first time Mugabe had visited Singapore for treatment as “various, mostly on-line, sources have claimed that Mugabe came to Singapore for prostate cancer treatment in May 2008, for treatment again in August 2008, and for unknown reasons (possibly a family holiday) in January 2009.”
Presidential spokesperson George Charamba has constantly denied the president was ill. In a 2007 cable, Moyo told a US embassy official that Mugabe’s doctors had urged the ailing leader to step down from active politics before the 2008 elections.
The doctors warned Mugabe that he was putting his fragile health at risk by clinging on to power. According to the cable, which originated on September 18, 2007, Moyo said Mugabe had throat cancer and had been advised against campaigning in the 2008 March election that he eventually lost to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.
“President Robert Mugabe has throat cancer and has been advised by his physician that campaigning will be dangerous to his health. At this point, Mugabe nevertheless intends to seek endorsement at a Zanu PF extra-ordinary congress in March,” Moyo said.
Moyo said this at a time when he was expelled from Zanu PF. Moyo said part of Mugabe’s motivation to go ahead with the campaign was to rubber stamp the appointment of Defence Minister Emerson Mnangagwa as his successor. He said Mugabe also intended to dethrone Vice-President Joice Mujuru and replace her with Oppah Muchinguri. Daily News
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