Zanu-PF Youth official critically ill

ZANU-PF's national secretary for administration in the youth league, Leslie Ncube is bed ridden at his fathers Jacaranda home in Gwanda suffering from an undisclosed ailment.

Sources said that Ncube's health deteriorated towards Christmas forcing his father, Matabeleland South provincial affairs minister Abedinico Ncube to fetch him from Bulawayo where he was based.

Leslie also served as a Jomic liaison officer representing Zanu-PF in Bulawayo during the inclusive government.

The outspoken youth official has reportedly lost weight and memory, sources said.

"He is gravely ill and seems to be losing his mind, however he is being attended to by a team of nurses who are also looking after his injured father," said a source who requested anonymity.

Nurses are keeping a round the clock vigil on minister Ncube who fell and injured his leg during Zanu-PF's victory celebrations in Beitbridge last year.

"The house has turned into a mini-clinic and some nurses are now complaining that they are being forced to work overtime having to attend to both father and son," added the source.

Last year Leslie made headlines when he heaped praise on President Robert Mugabe during his 89th birthday.

"To us you are not 89, but you are eight plus nine years, meaning you are 17 and still a teenager," said Ncube.

Ncube is also an avid follower of South Africa's Economic Freedom Front (EFF) leader Julius Malema.

Efforts to contact his father were fruitless as his mobile continually went unanswered.

However some relatives who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed the youth leader is seriously ill.