* Mugabe seen joking, laughing on arrival
* Defies talk of serious ill health
* Minister says Mugabe fit as a fiddle
(Adds details)
By Nelson Banya
HARARE, April 12 (Reuters) – President Robert Mugabe
returned home on Thursday, looking fit, after a trip to
Singapore that had ignited speculation the veteran Zimbabwean
leader was seriously ill.
The 88-year-old President, who has ruled the southern
African country for more than three decades, landed at Harare’s
main airport in a white chartered plane accompanied by his wife
Grace.
A Reuters reporter saw Mugabe joking and laughing with Vice
President Joice Mujuru, often touted as his possible successor.
Webster Shamu, the information and publicity minister,
blamed western media for spreading false reports about Mugabe’s
health.
“As you can see, he is fit as a fiddle. Why do we spread
rumours? It’s all lies told by a press driving an imperialist
agenda,” he said to a group of reporters at the airport.
Media had speculated that Mugabe had gone to seek vital
medical attention in Singapore, where he travelled eight times
last year for medical check-ups.
Mugabe did not speak to waiting reporters but is expected to
chair a weekly cabinet meeting later on Thursday. The cabinet
meeting venue is closed to the media.
Mugabe shares power with political rival Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai in a fragile coalition formed three years ago.
The former guerrilla leader has been the subject of several
health scares in recent years, with some reports saying he has
prostate cancer, but in February interviews with state media he
laughed off suggestions that he was seriously ill.
Mugabe and close aides have kept his health a closely
guarded secret.
Some members of his ZANU-PF party are afraid that, should
Mugabe die in office without settling a bitter succession
battle, the party could erupt in internal conflict and
destabilise the country.
Although ZANU-PF officials rally behind Mugabe in public, in
private many want him to retire and pass the baton to a younger
person as they fear his advanced age may cost the party victory
in an upcoming election.
But while some ZANU-PF members see Mugabe as a political
liability, they recognise him as the only person able to control
the highly partisan Zimbabwean army led by veterans of the 1970s
independence war.
Many are also unsure whether his potential successors can
defeat ZANU-PF’s most formidable opponent, Tsvangirai, in a free
election. Elections must be held by next year under the terms of
their power-sharing deal.
(Reporting by Nelson Banya; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
