The President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has became a laughing stock on the social media after a belated 93rd birthday special gift - a customized wheel-chair.
President Mugabe
President Robert Mugabe’s cabinet ministers on Monday, appeared to authenticate speculative media reports about the 93-year-old leader’s ill-health and frailty when they presented him with a “special massage wheelchair” as a belated birthday present, with critics insisting it was a wheelchair.
The chair was presented to Mugabe at a private function held at State House, before the report went viral amid speculation that he was now wheelchair-bound.
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister, Priscah Mupfumira, who coordinated and organised the event, confirmed the gifts which also included a nine-carat gold watch and a golden pen, but denied reports that they had presented him with a wheelchair.
“It’s true that I co-ordinated the event as a minister and presented the President with the gifts at State House. However, I have to clarify that we gave him a massaging and exercise chair. It’s nothing special,” Mupfumira said.
She also declined to disclose the cost of the special chair and its origins. “It is not important where the presents were bought and for how much. It was the ministers who collectively bought the presents and no ministry was involved in the purchases,” Mupfumira said.
The development could be a fulfilment of First Lady, Grace Mugabe’s declaration during a Mbare rally in November 2015 that her husband would continue to rule even from a wheelchair and later from his grave because of“his unparalleled wisdom to lead the country”.
“We are going to create a special wheelchair for President Mugabe until he rules to 100 years, because that’s what we want.”
Critics said it confirmed that old age had taken its toll on the Zanu-PF leader who turned 93 in February.
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