Mugabe was nodding, not dozing, says Minister

The government has dismissed a video doing the rounds on the Internet and social media appearing to show President Robert Mugabe dozing off while on his feet during a joint Press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo, Japan, this week.

Information minister Christopher Mushohwe told a Press conference in Harare yesterday that government had followed with "disgust a concocted malicious story that has been playing out on social media platforms and on the Internet this week which suggested the President 'slept' on the job".

Instead, Mushohwe said, a closer look at the video will show that Mugabe was nodding in agreement to what Abe was saying.

"Watching the said clip, even at close range, one could see that President Mugabe was nodding his head in response to the message being delivered by the Japanese Prime Minister. That is why we never bothered to try and dignify the malicious innuendo that the President was dozing off with a rebuttal," he said.

The Information minister said publication of the story that Mugabe dozed off while standing was only meant to damage the reputation of the Presidency.

"It is clear to us that whether it was an April fools' prank or unintended, either way, the motive was to injure and damage the reputation of our President in a big way, which is very shameful because it flies in the face of our national values and culture," he said.

Mushohwe also suggested the story incited violence, hatred or hate speech or malicious injury to a person's reputation or dignity.