Mugabe’s health deteriorates, off to Singapore for medical treatment

Zimbabwe’s 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe has flown to Singapore for a “routine medical check-up”, the state-owned Herald newspaper reports.

The world’s oldest ruler, who has appeared increasingly frail in public, addressed delegates at a World Economic Forum meeting in South Africa last week in what AFP news agency described as a “slurred tone while slumped in his seat”.

Mr Mugabe is expected back home in time for Saturday’s funeral of former chief justice Godfrey Chidyausiku, the Herald reports.

Vice-President Emmerson Mnangagwa is performing his duties in his absence.

Despite Mr Mugabe’s advancing age, the ruling Zanu-PF party has endorsed him as its candidate in next year’s presidential election.

At a rally in February, his wife, Grace Mugabe, said: “One day when God decides that Mugabe dies, we will have his corpse appear as a candidate on the ballot paper.”

Mr Mugabe has been in power since independence in 1980.