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Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe the 31st SADC summit on August 17, in Luanda, Angola. According to leaked documents on WikiLeaks, Mugabe has prostate cancer. (Stephane De Sakutin/AFP/Getty Images)
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has prostate cancer and was told by a doctor in 2008 that the disease could kill him within a few years, according to leaked cables obtained by WikiLeaks.
The cable documents the central bank governor, Gideon Gono, telling former U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe, James D. McGee, that the longtime president has “prostate cancer that has metastasized,” meaning that it has spread to other organs.
The disease “will cause his death in three to five years,” the cable quoted Gono, who cited Mugabe’s doctor. The doctor also urged the 87-year-old president, who has ruled the impoverished African nation since 1980, to step down from office to focus on regaining his health.
On Saturday, Zimbabwean media agencies reported that Mugabe called for early elections.
In the cable, it states that some officials within Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party are eager for him to “step down because of the state of the economy.”A spokesperson for the ZANU-PF party dismissed the leaked cables in an interview with CNN.
“If he was that ill, how come he is still going strong? I have seen him for a long time and even last week, he has no health problems,” spokesperson Rugare Gumbo told the news agency.
