General Chiwenga admitted at heart transplant hospital in South Africa

Vice President Constantino Chiwenga who was rushed to a hospital in Cape Town, South Africa on Saturday night, is not in any serious danger.

A Zimbabwe online publication reports that its has spoken to one hospital source who claimed he saw Chiwenga on Saturday in a corridor at the hospital chatting to Dr John Mangwiro, Zimbabwe’s Deputy Minister of Health. That account would suggest that Chiwenga is not in any serious danger.

The Groote Schuur Hospital conducted the world’s first heart transplant, and Chiwenga’s presence there has triggered speculation that he may have a heart ailment.

No official comment could be obtained from government, with President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s spokesperson George Charamba not answering calls.

The government has remained tight-lipped about Chiwenga’s medical flight.

In recent public appearances, Chiwenga has been seen with bandage straps on the back of his swollen hands, which doctors say points to ongoing treatment by injection. The bandage is meant to hide the multiple injection marks.

Chiwenga, who has been losing his skin pigmentation together with his wife, Mary, has claimed he was poisoned when he, as army commander, led a military coup that ousted former President Robert Mugabe in November 2017.

After receiving treatment for close to a month in Pretoria, South Africa, last October, the presidency said he suffered from “exhaustion” and unhealed injuries from the 1970s bush war for liberation.

Chiwenga was taken ill on Wednesday after a Zanu-PF politburo meeting and spent several hours at the Avenues Clinic in Harare.

By Friday night, his condition had deteriorated and he was flown out to Cape Town by private jet.

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