Zimbabwe’s former president Robert Mugabe is no longer able to walk as his health declines, his successor has said.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa told ruling party supporters at a rally on Saturday that the 94-year-old has been in hospital in Singapore for the past two months.
“He can no longer walk but we will continue to take care of him,” said Mnangagwa, who took over from his former mentor a year ago after Mugabe stepped down under military pressure.
Mnangagwa said Mugabe was supposed to return to Zimbabwe on October 15 but was not feeling well. He did not give further details about Mugabe’s condition.
The former president is now expected to return to Zimbabwe on November 30.
During his later years in power, Mugabe made several medical trips to Singapore.
Officials often said he was being treated for a cataract, denying frequent reports by private local media that he had prostate cancer.
Mnangagwa, who won a disputed July 30 presidential vote, repeated the army’s previous justification for last year’s coup, saying his former mentor Mugabe had been surrounded by criminals.
When the army rolled its tanks into Harare, military leaders said they were targeting “criminals around the president.” A bitter Mugabe said later, however, that the army’s action had forced him to resign.
Mugabe was the world’s oldest head of state before his dramatic exit.