Robert Mugabe
The
immediate past president of Zimbabwe, Mr Robert Mugabe, has flown to
Singapore for medical checks, his first foreign travel since leaving
power.
Mr Robert Mugabe, the former president of Zimbabwe, has left the
country for medical checks in Singapore, his first foreign travel since
the army forced him from office in November, a state security official
said on Tuesday.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the 93-year-old, who ruled
the southern African nation for 37 years, resigned after the army and
his ruling ZANU-PF party turned against him when it became clear that
his 52-year-old wife, Grace, was being groomed as his successor.
Until recently, Mugabe had a reputation for extensive and expensive
international travel, including regular medical trips to Singapore, a
source of public anger among his impoverished citizens.
The official said he left Harare with Grace and aides on Monday evening, the official said.
He is expected to make a stop-over in Malaysia, where his daughter, Bona, is expecting a second child.
“He has gone for a routine medical trip to Singapore,” said the
official, who has organised Mugabe’s security protection but who is not
authorised to speak to the media.
“He was due for a check-up but events of the last few weeks made it impossible for him to travel.”
The trip means Mugabe will not be in Zimbabwe when ZANU-PF endorses
President Emmerson Mnangagwa as its leader and presidential candidate
for 2018 elections during a one-day special congress on Friday.
The security official would not say how Mugabe was traveling
although the privately owned NewsDay newspaper said he was on a
state-owned Air Zimbabwe plane.
Mugabe was granted immunity from prosecution and assured of his
safety under his resignation deal, a source of frustration to many
Zimbabweans who accused him of looting state coffers and destroying the
economy during his time in power.
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