Robert Mugabe Jnr hospitalised

THE late former President Robert Mugabe's son Robert Jnr has reportedly been hospitalised in Singapore after his right lung collapsed.

The health condition is known as pneumothorax.

Pneumothorax, according to health literature, refers to a condition in which the space between the wall of the chest cavity and the lung is filled with air, causing all or a portion of the lung to collapse. Air usually enters this space, called the pleural space, through an injury to the chest wall or a hole in the lung.

Its cause may include cyanide poisoning, trauma to the chest cavity, a fractured rib, or trauma from a bullet or knife.  Other causes may also include cigarette smoking, drug abuse and certain lung diseases.

During the March 26 by-election campaign period, Robert Jnr attended one of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's rallies in Epworth, which sent tongues wagging with people saying that he was putting his life in danger.

Former Foreign Affairs minister Walter Mzembi yesterday tweeted: "It was always careless, too soon to trust your own fathers' persecutors, cozy up to them with such reckless abandon and think you would be safe in such company. Preserve the family lineage and cut the political adolescence! We pray for wisdom."

Asked by NewsDay to explain his tweet, Mzembi said:  "It has also happened even in the Bible where the enemy wants to wipe out a whole lineage an Old Testament kind of thinking. Sadly, kids are also getting naïve. Yes, I have had my own personal experience, many of them and one of them is that I had to spend seven hours on a bench in Cape Town while they removed some dangerous poison from my body. Why do you think we are out here? They (Mnangagwa's regime) are not sincere or noble."

Efforts to get a comment from Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa were fruitless yesterday.

Information secretary Ndabaningi Mangwana, however, responded to the speculation with a tweet: "I think we should respect individuals'  right to confidentiality when it comes to health issues, especially where one is a private citizen. The young man is not a public official."

Zanu-PF secretary for administration Obert Mpofu dismissed the allegations that Robert Jnr could have been poisoned by the regime.

"I am out of town and, therefore, not very up to date with the issue. Whatever the case may be, we don't comment on individuals' health and Zanu-PF has nothing to do with this," Mpofu said.