Harare – Former Zimbabwe Foreign Affairs Minister, Walter Mzembi is reportedly ill in remand prison.
Hopewell Chin’ono, a senior journalist posted on his X account quoting unnamed prison officials.
”A reliable senior Zimbabwe Prison Service official has said that jailed former foreign minister Walter Mzembi is seriously ill,” Chin’ono wrote.
“He is looking very dark and his eyes are pale,” the official said.
They added that he is spending most of his time sleeping, and prison officers fear he could be suffering from a serious illness.”
Mzembi, a cancer survivor was treated of colon cancer during his time in exile in South Africa.
He is in prison for violating bail conditions from seven years ago and has been denied bail by both the magistrates’ court and the High Court of Zimbabwe.
Mzembi was recently jailed after his bail was revoked after he defaulted appearing in court for over seven years when he was in South Africa.
Mzembi was the late president Robert Mugabe last Foreign Affairs Minister before a military coup in November, 2017 which ushered in the presidency of Emmerson Mnangagwa.
Mzembi was arrested in 2018 and charged with two counts of theft of trust property that occured when he was a government minister.
After his initial arrest in 2018, Mzembi was given bail before he left for South Africa on medical grounds in which his passport was released by the courts.
Mzembi only came back to Zimbabwe in June.
He had three warrants of arrest for failing to appear in court.
Mzembi was arrested upon his arrival at the Robert Mugabe International Airport.