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'Happy, healthy' Mugabe still a snappy dresser: priest

Harare - Robert Mugabe was persuaded out of office three months ago - but he still wears his trademark suits, it was reported on Sunday.

Father Fidelis Mukonori helped persuade Mugabe, who turns 94 this week, to step down after a military takeover in November. Mukonori is Mugabe's longtime confessor.

Well and happy

The priest told the privately-owned Standard newspaper that he is in constant touch with the Zimbabwean ex-president and visited him "a few weeks ago". He claimed Mugabe looked "happy and healthy".

Said Mukonori: "He is still the same. He is still in his suits. He still dresses well, looks smarts, still shaves and cleans. He is still the same Robert Mugabe you knew and [he] looks relaxed."

Party struggles reached breaking point

Mugabe was in power in Zimbabwe from independence in 1980. He was only forced out when internal party struggles for power reached breaking point - and the army stepped in to stop former first lady Grace Mugabe and her supporters taking control of the party. 

Mugabe's daughter Bona meantime has had a second child, the Standard reports. The birth of her first child Simbarashe sparked controversy after she gave birth outside Zimbabwe, likely in Singapore, far away from Zimbabwe's own struggling and under-resourced hospitals. The Standard said Bona Mugabe's second child may have been born in Malaysia.

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