Posted on 01/25/2004 6:18:26 AM PST by Clive
Robert Mugabe was airlifted to South Africa for emergency medical treatment yesterday after collapsing at his state residence in Harare, a member of his security staff said last night.
The 79-year-old dictator was flown by military aircraft to Johannesburg after a violent vomiting fit. He was accompanied on the flight by his wife Grace, personal doctors and a string of aides.
His collapse followed a similar bout of illness three months ago, for which he was also treated in South Africa. Last night, road blocks were set up around Harare, manned by riot police and soldiers to dispel any mass protests. Reinforcements from police, army and militia outside the capital were drafted into Harare to shore up the regime.
"We were ordered not to give any details of the president's illness in case it brought people out on to the streets," a senior member of the 'Green Bombers', the notorious youth brigade created by Mr Mugabe, told The Telegraph. Mr Mugabe is understood to have vomited repeatedly during Friday night then collapsed as he attempted to get out of bed yesterday.
On arrival in Johannesburg, he was driven away in an entourage of cars accompanied by bodyguards, according to a witness who saw him at the airport. He is understood to have been driven to a clinic for treatment. He was previously treated at a private hospital near Pretoria.
Mr Mugabe is taken outside Zimbabwe for treatment to reduce the threat of news of his illness leaking out and prompting popular unrest. Reports of a similar collapse late in October, when he was said to have suffered uncontrollable vomiting, prompted uproar.
At the time, spokesmen for his regime denied that he was ill or had left the country, insisting it was "business as usual". However, television pictures purporting to show the president at an international cultural conference are said by broadcasters to have been old footage.
A member of staff at Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation later revealed that they were asked to find recent footage of Mr Mugabe and play it during the national news bulletin to "calm public opinion".
In fact, the pictures used dated from his ruling Zanu-PF's annual party congress meeting, at Victoria Falls, last August. Supporters of the regime have sought to play down Mr Mugabe's medical problems, but rumours of ill-health and strokes have dogged him in recent years. Mr Mugabe's latest collapse and emergency hospitalisation will intensify jockeying within Zanu-PF over his succession.
After 23 years in power, the president has appeared increasingly frail in recent months while at the same time showing remarkable stamina. Last night, a spokesman for the South African government said: "I have no information on whether President Mugabe is in the country or not."
It may be wishful thinking on my part, but this one looks like it has more meat on it.
Mugabe in SA on 'secret visit' - reports
January 25 2004 at 11:03AM
South African television said Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe had arrived in South Africa on Saturday on a secret visit amid confusion over whether he has agreed to formal talks with the opposition.
The SABC, which said the duration and purpose of the trip was unclear, gave no source for its report and the South African Foreign Affairs Ministry declined to confirm it.
"If President Mugabe is here in South Africa, it stands to reason that he would be on a private visit. If he was here on an official visit, we would not hesitate to inform the public," Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa said.
Government officials in Harare were not immediately available for comment.
Rumours swirled in October that Mugabe had been secretly flown to South African for treatment after suffering either a stroke or bad fall, but officials later denied the reports.
South African President Thabo Mbeki said on Thursday Mugabe's ruling Zanu-PF party was ready to resume formal dialogue with the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on resolving the country's political crisis.
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo made similar comments on Friday, but Zimbabwe's main political parties have not confirmed any breakthrough in launching negotiations.
Zanu-PF walked out of talks in 2002 after the MDC went to court to challenge Mugabe's re-election in a poll it and several international observers said was rigged.
The ruling party has said it will not resume formal dialogue until the MDC's legal challenge is dropped - a condition the MDC has said it cannot honour.
Mugabe insists he won the 2002 elections fairly and has labelled the MDC a puppet of Western powers who want to see him ousted over his seizure of white-owned commercial farms for redistribution among landless blacks.
The political crisis has exacerbated an economic meltdown in Zimbabwe, which suffers from rocketing inflation and unemployment, as well as critical shortages of food, fuel and foreign exchange.
Maybe he's pregnant.
They should've taken his butt to the Casualty Intake at Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto alongside the common folk.
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