Is Morgan Tsvangirai's ill health newsworthy?

With his party seemingly in turmoil, MDC-T leader Morgan Tsvangirai's health problems have led to all sorts of speculation, but only within the confines of Southern Africa. The rest of the world appears to have shown no interest.

The circumstances surrounding Morgan Tsvangirai's admission and subsequent release from a Harare hospital this week remain somewhat unclear. Initial suggestions were that the "suspended" MDC-T leader was hospitalised due to food poisoning, but the Zimbabwe's The Herald newspaper reported on Tuesday that personal and political problems were responsible, and even quoted hospital officials as saying that he had suffered "a mental, and maybe a nervous breakdown."

It seemed plausible, given that he and his estranged wife Elizabeth Macheka, are now living separately. The bigger factor was that the turmoil within the Zimbabwean party has taken its toll. Factional fighting has torn the fragmented MDC-T apart in recent months, with Tsvangirai's secretary-general Tendai Biti leading a revolt that has seen a spate of alleged suspensions and expulsions from the organisation.



However, reports of a nervous breakdown had their credibility undermined when Tsvangirai emerged from hospital a day later looking fit as a fiddle, and he even took questions from journalists at his Highlands home in the afternoon.

"Is it illegal for a person to simply fall sick?" he interjected when questions over his general health persisted. It was a fair point, and one that appeared to rubbish suggestions he was no longer fit to continue as the party leader.

But the media speculation didn't end there. The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) and Zimpapers newspapers – all controlled by the Zanu PF-led government – claimed on Wednesday night that the former prime minister sneaked out of Harare's Trauma Centre and Hospital without paying the $2,600 bill for his treatment.

A report was allegedly made at Avondale Police Station and a docket opened after Tsvangirai reportedly left the hospital via a laundry room and made his escape in a getaway vehicle readied for him by aides in the car park. “I can't believe that ZBC actually had a story on my purported failure to pay my hospital bills," the 62-year old was quoted as saying on newzimbabwe.com. "For the record, my bill has been taken care of and it was not a humongous bill that needed treasury involvement."

He continued: "Anyway, we all know that this too shall pass. I am encouraged to share with you a scripture I was reading this evening – 2 Corinthians 4: 17-18. 'For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen; since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal'."

While there is plenty of propaganda and seemingly inaccurate reports in Zimbabwean media, there has been no coverage of the embattled Tsvangirai's latest struggle on any major global news website outside of Africa, and it is this he should find even more insulting.

Let us not forget, this is a man who has, at times, fought single-handedly against the tide of Zanu PF oppression, survived assassination attempts, and been jailed unconstitutionally on numerous occasions. By contrast, international coverage of his opponent Robert Mugabe's increasing health problems has become almost obsessive.