'I'm dead, I'm a corpse,' jokes Grace Mugabe

President Robert Mugabe has firmly rejected the suggestion that his wife Grace could take over from his as president, telling The Telegraph she has no such "ambitions".

Mr Mugabe said his wife was happy with the roles she currently holds, as Zanu-PF's women's' league leader, owner of a large dairy farm and patron of a children's' orphanage.

"She doesn't have those ambitions. No, I don't think so," he said. "She has accepted the post of being secretary for women's affairs and she has got her own charity to care for."

Asked if she would like to be president one day, Grace Mugabe replied: "I don't know, I don't know!" Addressing reports in the Zimbabwean media that she has been gravely ill and might even have been suffering from colon cancer, Mrs Mugabe joked: "I'm dead! I'm a corpse."

Speculation about Mrs Mugabe's political ambitions was sparked last year when she was confirmed as the leader of the Zanu-PF Womens' League, a position which automatically gave her a place in the ruling party politburo.