Rumors had gone viral online that Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe "92" had collapsed and went on acoma while on vacation in Singapore have been dismissed by his spokesman,
state media reported on Thursday. According to the annonimous author about the rumor said "sources
close to the president" were holding high-level meetings and that Mugabe
would most probably not recover from his injuries. "The report says the
army will most like be deploying soldiers in the streets in the next
coming days," the author added, elaborating that Mugabe's family had been
told "to expect the worst." The
state-run Herald newspaper cited Mugabe's spokesperson George Charamba saying that it has become a tradition for rumors about Mugabe's health to
surface at the start of the year during his annual leave."You cannot doubt that there will be a story on the President's alleged death every January," Charamba said, adding that it was the best way for the website to "improve its hits in order to get dirty money from Google." Mugabe has been to Singapore on a number of occasions for eye cataract operations, but there are also unconfirmed reports saying that he suffers from prostate cancer.
President Mugabe says he is "fit as a fiddle" and continues to give long speeches in public despite his 92 years. Speculations over his fitness abounded after he tripped and fell down in Harare last year during a televised ceremony. He also addressed the parliament in September last year, without apparently being aware that he had given the same speech