Mugabe is in Singapore - sources

October 28 2011 at 12:56am

Harare - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has flown secretly to Singapore
for medical treatment for the eighth time this year, government sources
said, heightening concern over the health of the 87-year-old leader.

As he approaches his 32nd year in power, observers say political factions
within his Zanu-PF party are jockeying increasingly openly to succeed him as
party leader, amid increasing expectations of political instability in the
southern African country.

The sources, who asked not to be named, said Mugabe and his wife, Grace,
flew from Harare on Monday to Johannesburg where they caught a Singapore
Airlines flight to Singapore. They said he was expected to return on Sunday.

His spokesmen have declined to comment. Western diplomatic sources who have
recently seen Mugabe say he appears increasingly fail.

While the official version is that Mugabe has been to Singapore for a
cataract operation and subsequent check-ups, there are rumours that he has
prostate cancer that has spread.

The government sources also reported that Mugabe had been shaken by the
killing last week of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Mugabe has repeatedly
condemned Nato support for anti-Gaddafi forces.

Political analysts say Zanu-PF faces an uncertain future as the coalition
government works slowly towards a new constitution and elections within the
next two years.

Opinion surveys rate Zanu-PF way behind the party led by Prime Minister
Morgan Tsvangirai, Mugabe's main political rival, with whom he had been
forced into a power-sharing deal. - Sapa-dpa