Zimbabwe’s long-time President Robert Mugabe had collapsed, an insider has revealed.
Happyton Bonyongwe, the Director-General of the Zimbabwean Central Intelligence Organisation, reportedly tightened security at State House in Zimbabwe, a day after fears for Mugabe’s health surfaced.
According to Internet commentetor Baba Jukwa, an insider in the ruling Zanu-PF party who uses a Facebook page to expose corruption in the regime, reported rumours that Mugabe had collapsed.
However, he added that Mugabe’s press secretary, George Charamba, had denied that the President was ill, Sydney Morning Herald reports.
There have been rumours for several years that Mugabe, who turns 90 next month, has prostate cancer.
Jukwa said Mugabe had ‘gone on his final visit’ to his doctor.
The mysterious figure believed to be Baba Jukwa is a Zimbabwean political online blogger. He is believed to be part of the Vapanduki crew, a group which includes disgruntled ZANU-PF insiders, service chiefs and other civil servants in Zimbabwe.
He wrote: “MUGABE HEALTH Update- Great Zimbabweans, things are not well here. Security has been tightened at State House today. At the moment its not clear why Bonyongwe has done this, cold paranoia?”
“I am in Harare, so I have not had direct infor on the President’s latest. Many here say -all this is because of what has happened with the president.
“If it is true that he has died, they are likely to keep his body refrigerated until securitychiefs pass the nod to announce. When that will be? It could even be 6 months later. This is the way to do it in line with protocol.”
“Meanwhile Pray for your country Great Zimbabweans so that there is no bloodshed.”
Ahead of disputed general elections last year, the self-proclaimed disaffected insider of the ruling ZANU-PF party created the Facebook page of “Baba Jukwa”. With the disarming profile picture of a cartoon old man, Baba Jukwa traffics in political napalm, spilling damaging details of high-level party meetings, allegations of voter fraud, and embarrassing gossip – all replete with private phone numbers for citizens to harass the officials in question.
Most notably, Baba warned ZANU-PF’s political targets when they enter the party’s crosshairs.
He declared that top officials were “planning to sink Edward Chindori Chininga and replace him with their puppet”.
The late Chininga, a Member of Parliament who had released a damning report on corruption in the country’s diamond mines, died nine days later in a suspicious car accident.
“Heartless maggots”, raged Baba Jukwa the day after. “The politics of killing each other in my party, as I always told you, will intensify…I am going to expose my party worse so that they will know that killing other people is wrong.”
But his advanced years and the persistent questions about his health, compounded by successive medical check-up visits to Singapore, means that his endurance in office carries its own cloud of uncertainty for Zimbabwe’s future.
