Maravi

(TALKZIMBABWE) Media gone amok over Mugabe: Charamba

Media gone amok over Mugabe: Charamba
By: Samantha Chidzero
Posted: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 3:50 am

PRESIDENT Robert Mugabe‘s spokesman has dismissed reports that the Zimbabwean leader is being hospitalised in Malaysia, as reported by the Telegraph (UK) newspaper.

George Charamba, who is also the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information, also dismissed reports that President Mugabe was suffering from prostate cancer.

The Telegraph newspaper's Peta Thornycroft at the weekend reported that President Mugabe had medical examinations while on holiday, but was forced to return to Kuala Lumpur after his condition worsened.

Charamba told this reporter on Monday that this was "international media gone amok".

“The president is on his annual leave and we made this public. This is a case of international media gone amok,” said Charamba.

“We are used to such unsubstantiated reports. They always amount to nought.”

"There are two President Mugabe's, the one we know is on holiday and the one they (international media) have invented."

Charamba added that the journalist who wrote that story is very "creative, but unfortunately such creativity tends to discredit those who pay their salaries and put those organisations into disrepute".

A Malaysian Foreign Ministry spokesman told the Malaysia Star newspaper: “There is no indication that Mugabe is here for an operation.”

The spokesman said the Zimbabwe High Commission had also confirmed President Mugabe was not in Malaysia.

The Telegraph report quoted unnamed diplomatic sources in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

President Mugabe has often joked about the reports on his health, especially reports suggesting his death. Last year he told journalists: “I don’t know how many times I die but nobody has ever talked about my resurrection."

He added: “I suppose they don’t want to because it would mean they would mention my resurrection several times."

Labels: GEORGE CHARAMBA, PETA THORNYCROFT, ROBERT MUGABE

posted by MrK @ 5:49 PM