Tshwane - As speculation continues to mount regarding the health status of Zimbabwe’s Vice President Emmerson Mnangwagwa, who was airlifted to South Africa and hospitalised after allegedly eating poisoned food at a Zanu PF rally, no information was forthcoming from the Zimbabwean Embassy in Pretoria on Monday.
Numerous attempt to reach Zimbabwe’s Ambassador Isaac Moyo drew blanks as his mobile phone appeared to be switched off for the rest of the day on Monday.
Information remained scant on Mnangagwa’s status in Gauteng but back in Zimbabwe, on the sidelines of a Heroes Day commemoration in Harare, the country’s Minister of Health and Child Care David Parirenyatwa told journalists that the vice president was “almost jovial”.
undefined“He is well. He is much better. He is almost better. He is well. He had severe vomiting with diarrhoea and [he] became dehydrated. We took him to hospital institutions and he improved. He has been done a battery of tests – blood tests, stool tests – normal routine tests that will ascertain exactly what happened. That is the situation we have now. But he is well,” said in the interview video posted on YouTube on Monday.
Asked why Mnangagwa had to be airlifted to South Africa, Parirenyatwa responded: “He preferred to go there for his doctors. Some of his doctors are in South Africa so we sent him there."
The 75-year-old politician suddenly fell ill at the weekend while attending President Robert Mugabe’s “youth interface rally” at Pelindaba Stadium in Gwanda -- a small town hundreds of kilometres from Harare.
Mnangagwa is said to have started “vomiting blood” a few minutes after Mugabe had started speaking.
A long-time ally of Mugabe, Mnangagwa left in an ambulance and was taken to Gwanda Hospital, but later flown to a military base in Gweru, where he was attended to.
Reports said he was flown to neighbouring South Africa for medical attention on Sunday morning after his health had “further deteriorated”.
He was said to have left at 10:20am from Manyame Air Force Base in Harare,on his way to Lanseria Airport in Johannesburg. He reportedly complained of feeling dizzy following a fruit juice he had had during the rally.
Spokesperson for South Africa’s Department of International Relations Nelson Kgwete referred inquiries on Mnangagwa to the Zimbabwe Embassy.
On the other hand, Zimbabwe’s pressure group #Tajamuka said the swift transfer of Mnangagwa to Gauteng showed how the country’s health infrastructure had deteriorated.
“The stupid games these are playing do not come as a shock to us. We have better things to worry about than focus on people who are on a power trip by hook and crook. What do you take of a deputy president who doesn't have confidence in the medical facilities in his own country? It’s clear evidence that they acknowledge that the health system is paralysed, hence they all flood across Limpopo,” said Shelton Chiyangwa, who leads the South African chapter of the #Tajamuka campaign.
“They can kill each other for all we care but they must not just kill our nation any further.”