HARARE Confusion surrounds the continuous to-ing and fro-ing by President Robert Mugabe Mugabe made his fifth trans-continental trip to Singapore in four months, at taxpayers expense, on Friday purportedly to collect his ailing wife. He draws $3 million from state coffers for every trip. He was expected to return on Wednesday, before making another foreign trip to Rome, for tomorrow (Friday)s Food and Agriculture Organisation summit a punishing schedule for an 87-year-old.
Cabinet ministers and officials have said Mugabe regularly nods off during meetings, and have questioned his ability to concentrate. Grace has not been seen in public since April 7 when she and Mugabe flew out of Harare. A striking Air Zimbabwe flight crew was ordered back to work for the trip which the airline said was national duty.
Presidential spokesman George Charamba has refused to comment – amid conflicting claims about the real reasons for her Asian trip. Initial reports said she had fallen and dislocated a hip, while others suggest she is on a degree study programme with an unidentified Chinese university.
Mugabe went to Singapore in January on holiday. He returned there in February, Charamba telling reporters at the time that it was to correct a problem with eye surgery he underwent during his holiday. He was back in Singapore in March, Charamba said, for a review on his cataract operation. He returned sporting a new pair of glasses.
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