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Frail Tsvangirai’s images appear in media following presidential visit


Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s visit to Morgan Tsivangirai on Friday has helped lift the lid on the opposition leader’s frail health.

Renowned for his endless tussles for power with the country’s former president Robert Mugabe during his prime, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party leader, who is battling cancer, now looks a pale shadow of himself as per the photos taken during the presidential visit.

Irregardless, the Head of State later assured the media that Tsvangirai is ‘fine and recovering very well’ in a statement that has been hailed by the opposition as one that could unite the polarized country.

“He is fine. He is recuperating very well. Very soon he will be going back again for further medical check-ups in South Africa,” Mnangagwa said as he left Tsvangirai’s home.

ELECTIONS

Dressed in a multi-coloured shirt and matching trousers, Tsvangirai, who was pictured seated next to his wife and the smiling Head of State, appears to have lost significant weight since he last time appeared in public.

Tsvangirai was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2016 and has made several visits to South Africa for chemotherapy ever since. He was rushed to South Africa in September last year after he collapsed at a party workshop in Kadoma when his condition deteriorated.

His health condition has fuelled infighting within his party, with growing calls for him to step down by party bigwigs who believes his condition makes it difficult for him to endure the rigors of an election campaign.

However, Tsvangirai, a former prime minister and a veteran political, has insisted that he will be fit enough to contest in the country’s forthcoming elections due later this year.