Mugabe did not want the WHO envoy role anyway, his spokesperson says, after it was rescinded
Harare — Robert Mugabe would have rejected the role of World Health Organisation (WHO) goodwill envoy had he been formally asked, his spokesperson said on Tuesday, days after state media cheered the Zimbabwean president’s appointment. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus named Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador last week Wednesday, at a conference in Uruguay that both men were attending. But the appointment was rescinded on Sunday following a backlash from western donors, rights groups and opposition parties. Last Friday, the state-owned Herald celebrated the largely ceremonial appointment as a "new feather in president’s cap", adding that Mugabe had accepted the role. His spokesperson 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 W...
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