Tsvangirai confirms Mugabe told him he was going for medical check-up in Singapore

Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai on Friday let the cat out of the bag when he told a World Health Day gathering in Zvishavane that the 88-year-old Mugabe had confided in him that the much-talked about trip to Singapore was for a medical check-up.

The former trade union leader, however admonished those predicting the imminent death of his long-time rival.

Old and ill, Mugabe deserved the country's sympathy, Tsvangirai added.

"We all have stages. There is a time when we should all respect the aged, mothers, fathers and grandfathers, because they are old.

"According to our culture, young people have to look after the old," he said.

Speaking at the commemorations in Zvishavane, Tsvangirai also said he had jokingly asked Mugabe in Cabinet how the octogenarian leader was miraculously and repeatedly dying and coming back to life.

"I told him that we had read in the papers that he had died and he reminded me that he had informed me that he was going for an eye treatment. He said to me, 'do you not know how these papers operate?"

Tsvangirai said to laughter from the crowds.

Last year a whistle blower website, WikiLeaks, released a cable in which aides told an American ambassador in 2008 that the octogenarian leader had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and that doctors had given him three to five years to live.

Zanu PF propagandist and serial political flip-flopper Jonathan Moyo also confided in United States officials that Mugabe was fighting a deadly battle with cancer, according to the diplomatic cables.

Moyo has openly admitted meeting the diplomats.

In Zvishavane, Tsvangirai warned people against confusing ageing with sickness.

"Being old is not being sick. Getting old should be treated as such. Being ill is another thing, so let us not say when a person has gone for treatment that he has died, or something critical has happened to him. It is just ageing," the premier said, before boosting his own health credentials.

"I am 60 years, maybe I can also qualify for social security provision like in other countries, but there are others who have aged more than me. I am still in the mix," he said.

Mugabe's closely guarded health has recently caused anxiety both in and outside his party.

This was after Mugabe had been reported by state media to have left for Singapore on a private visit to arrange post-graduate studies for his daughter Bona.

Other speculative reports suggested Mugabe had entered into a deal to transfer power to Defence minister Emmerson Mnangagwa.

His prolonged stay in Singapore, however fuelled speculation that he was battling for his life, after Cabinet meetings had been postponed as a result of his absence.

Leaked US diplomatic cables stated Mugabe was spotted at Singapore's upmarket Glen Eagles Hospital in 2008 where an oncologist (cancer specialist) reportedly confirmed that Mugabe was a patient.

However, Information minister Webster Shamu described the latest reports on Mugabe's supposed illness as "hogwash".

Mugabe himself has spiritedly denied that he is dogged by ill health.

In September 2010, he said that only God could decide issues of life and death.

"My time will come, but for now, 'no'. I am still fit enough to fight the sanctions and knock out (my opponents).

"I don't know how many times I die but nobody has ever talked about my resurrection.

"I suppose they don't want to, because it would mean they would mention my resurrection several times and that would be quite divine, an achievement for an individual who is not divine.

"Jesus died once, and resurrected only once, and poor Mugabe several times," Mugabe told Reuters in a wide-ranging interview in September 2010.