Zimbabwe dismisses Mugabe heart attack rumor

Reports that Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe suffered a massive heart attack that left him in a comma unlikely to survive are a “grim lie”, officials from the government of Zimbabwe have said.

Some newspapers said the 91 year old veteran leader had died having collapsed while on a holiday with his family in Singapore.

“You cannot doubt that there will be a story on the President’s alleged death every January,” presidential spokesman George Charamba told state-run Herald newspaper.

While blaming the paper that first reported about Mugabe’s alleged illness, Charamba said stories about Mugabe’s health have emerged each year the Zimbabwe president has taken an annual leave.

“There is a financial incentive to the grim lie,” said Mugabe’s spokesperson.

Speculation over Mugabe’s ill health mounted last year when the world’s oldest national leader who has ruled Zimbabwe since independence in 1980 tripped and fell down some steps at a televised ceremony last year.

He braved the prophecy by Malawi Prophet Austin Liabunya who reportedly said the pan-African hero would not make it to 2016.

Currently heading the African Union, Robert Mugabe has been accused of systematic human rights abuses and overseeing Zimbabwe’s dire economic decline. He has been kicked with various sanctions from the West.