MUGABE’S SPOKESPERSON SAYS THE PRESIDENT WOULD HAVE REJECTED WHO’S AMBASSADORIAL ROLE

Before that: Friday, the state-owned Heraldcelebrated the largely ceremonial appointment as a ‘New feather in President’s cap’, adding that Mugabe, 93, had accepted the role.

And now: His spokesman told the same newspaper on Tuesday that Zimbabwe’s sole leader since independence from Britain in 1980 had only heard about the appointment via the media.

“Had anything been put to the President … (he) would have found such a request to be an awkward one,” Charamba was quoted as saying.

“The WHO cannot take back what it never gave in the first place, and as far as he is concerned, all this hullabaloo over a non-appointment is, in fact, a non-event.”