Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe returns home

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe has returned from his annual month-long holiday and returned to work Saturday, state media said, following rumours that he had collapsed and died in Asia. Mugabe, 91, who was rumored to be sick and h…

While foreign affairs officials said they knew very little about Nguema’s visit impeccable sources insisted that his visit was “imminent”.

Mugabe, who is outgoing AU chair, arrived in Harare late Friday night from a month long annual vacation in the Far East.

Earlier, Mnangagwa welcomed President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, who is on a three-day working visit to the country.

The state broadcaster, the ZBC, said in a tweet this morning that Mugabe’s return puts to rest speculation by some prophets of doom.

In 2014 Mr Mugabe was re-elected to lead Zanu-PF for another five years, automatically making him the party’s presidential candidate in the next general elections, in 2018. This year Mugabe’s birthday festivities will be held at Great Zimbabwe, a precolonial monument popular with tourists.

Civic organizations and opposition parties have urged Mugabe to cancel his birthday celebrations, saying the money would be better spent buying grain for Zimbabweans suffering from food shortages because of an ongoing drought.

Harare last week denied rumours that Mugabe, the world’s oldest national leader who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, had collapsed and died while on holiday.

Africa’s longest-serving leader – was welcomed with a garland of flowers and traditional dancers.