Zimbabwean officials dismissed a South African newspaper report that President Robert Mugabe was ill today as rubbish and the product of "sick and evil minds".
The Timesnewspaper had reported that Mr Mugabe (85) was taken to a Dubai hospital after falling ill and was undergoing specialist treatment.
"The president is not sick but was away on holiday. He returned home yesterday, and those reports are a load of rubbish that we get from sick and evil minds," said one official.
A sprightly Mr Mugabe made a public appearance at his Zimbabwe House offices on Wednesday afternoon, to meet a special envoy from Venezuela's leader Hugo Chavez who invited him to an African-South American summit to be held in Caracas next month.
The veteran ruler also took time to visit the family of a senior ZANU-PF official who died last week and delivered a 20-minute speech while on his feet, showing no visible sign of ill-health.
"We've come to commiserate with you, we could not be with you at the burial of our beloved comrade Richard Hove. We only arrived yesterday," Mr Mugabe said.
Speculation regularly surfaces over the health of Mr Mugabe. He has been in power since independence in 1980 and in February formed a unity government with old rival Morgan Tsvangirai to try to end political crisis and economic decline.
Mr Mugabe's spokesman George Charamba said: "He is fit, and has not been to any hospital. He is being made ill by newspapers and not his God. We are being forced to dignify these reports by commenting on them."
South African President Jacob Zuma is expected to visit Zimbabwe tomorrow to discuss the progress of the unity government.
Reuters