Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe had advanced cancer, and had to be taken off chemotherapy treatment because it was no longer effective, before he died, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has revealed.
Hinting on the possible cause of Mugabe’s death for the first time, Mnangagwa said he intended to visit the former leader in Singapore, where he had been receiving treatment, after the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (Ticad), which was held in Yokohama, Japan, last month.
Mnangagwa said this in New York on Saturday while addressing Zanu-PF supporters living in North America.
He is in the United States for the 74th Ordinary Session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Mnangagwa briefed the party supporters on the demise of the country’s founding leader in Singapore, saying he heard about him being unwell while he was attending the Ticad in Japan and had intended to visit both Mugabe and Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who is hospitalised in China.
“In fact, when we discussed about the issue, it turned out that treatment had stopped, doctors had stopped treatment, chemotherapy, one, because of age and also because the cancer had spread and it was not helping anymore,” he said on the illness of Mugabe.
The former president died on September 6 aged 95.—Herald newspaper