Where's Grace Mugabe?

First Lady Grace Mugabe's expected and unexpected withdrawal from the public domain for the past three weeks has set tongues wagging about her real state of health, as her husband has continued to globe-trot alone or in the company of his married daughter Bona.

And as President Robert Mugabe's normally publicity mad wife evades the limelight, speculation is rife that she may be seriously unwell, having undergone what her husband said was an appendix operation in Singapore late last year- even though this supposedly minor procedure kept her away from the country for more than two months, recuperating.

Mugabe's spokesperson, George Charamba, was not picking up his phone yesterday to offer his insight into Grace's whereabouts as the nonagenarian embarked on yet another costly foreign trip yesterday, this time to Algeria- following his visits to Singapore, Japan and Namibia last week alone.

His Algeria sojourn means that Mugabe will have flown more than 50 hours and tens of thousands of kilometres by the time he comes home later this week- amid talk that he is scheduled to go on the road again then, on African Union business.

The 50 hours on the plane means that Mugabe will have spent more time flying than he has spent in Zimbabwe since he embarked on his trip to Singapore and Japan, where he controversially included Bona as part of his official entourage, in the absence of Grace.