Mugabe atibiwa saratani Singapore, akubali kuachia madaraka

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe is reportedly fighting for his life in a Singapore hospital with an undisclosed illness.

According to a Zimbabwe Mail report, a senior official of Mugabe's ZANU-PF party, said the President was undergoing intensive treatment in Singapore and that some members of his family had joined him after boarding a chartered private jet on Saturday.

The report comes amid revelations that Mugabe had agreed to hand over power to his Defence Minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Mugabe, 88, was apparently in Singapore to oversee enrolment in a postgraduate course at Singapore University for his daughter Bona, The Australian reports.

According to a US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks last year, Mugabe is believed to be suffering from prostate cancer that has spread to other organs.

He was urged by his physician to step down in 2008, but has stayed in the job.

Meanwhile, some recent media reports claimed that Mugabe had entered into a 'gentlemen's agreement' to hand over power to Mnangagwa, 65, who helped orchestrate Mugabe's battle against white rule in the 1970s.

Taarifa zaidi zinadai kuwa,

President Mugabe has flown secretly to Singapore for medical treatment for the eighth time this year, government sources said, heightening concern over the health of 87-year-old leader.

As he approaches his 32nd year in power, observers say political factions within his ZANU(PF) party are jockeying increasingly openly to succeed him as party leader, amid increasing expectations of political instability in the southern African country.

The sources, who asked not to be named, said Mugabe and his wife, Grace, flew from Harare on Monday to Johannesburg where they caught a Singapore Airlines flight to Singapore. They said he was expected to return on Sunday.

His spokesmen have declined to comment. Western diplomatic sources who have recently seen Mugabe say he appears increasingly fail.

While the official version is that Mugabe has been to Singapore for a cataract operation and subsequent check-ups, there are rumours that he has prostate cancer that has spread.