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MR Eddie Cross — the opposition Movement for Democratic Change chief whip — on Friday wrote a lengthy article on his blog in which he blatantly claimed that President Mugabe was incapacitated after allegedly suffering a stroke.

Without a shred of evidence, he made startling revelations in which he traced the President’s journey from the Sadc summit in Swaziland, a small pit stop in Harare for supposed refuelling and picking up of medical personnel, another stop in Lusaka, Zambia, allegedly forced by Cde Mugabe’s deteriorating condition. According to Mr Cross, the President was then rushed to Dubai for further urgent attention and it would be a miracle if he made it back home alive.

In a bizarre piece which was seized upon by a number of online publications including ZimEye, Mr Cross was bullish, crass and authoritative in his article. He came across as a credible source of information and fed into the frenzy of speculation and rumours around the President’s health. Zimbabwe was in a tailspin last week after President Mugabe cut short his stay at the Sadc summit in Swaziland and flew to Dubai to attend to his son Robert Junior.

Of course he needed not announce his visit since it was a private affair but the rumour mill went into overdrive and the likes of Mr Cross — a diehard Rhodesian whose disdain for the person of the President is well documented —fuelled the rumours by publishing an article full of hogwash and unadulterated crap. Part of the article read:

“At the close of the summit (Japan/Africa summit in Kenya) he (Cde Mugabe) flew to Swaziland to attend a meeting of Sadc Heads of State. For a much younger man this would have been a punishing schedule and on the plane to Swaziland he had some sort of medical collapse. He nevertheless tried to attend the meeting on Tuesday but collapsed in the meeting and was given medical treatment and then taken to his plane to fly home early,” wrote Mr Cross.

“The plane flew to Harare where a medical team and fresh crew and fuel were loaded and then they flew out — we suspect to his usual medical centre of Singapore. However, in flight, they diverted to Lusaka and then Dubai on the basis of a medical emergency. What was wrong — as usual we were told nothing but we hear that the Old Man had a stroke.

“I do not think he can come back from this and we must now assume that the long awaited transition to a new government and new leadership is at long last about to start. It would have been so much more dignified if he had recognised that his ‘sell by’ date had arrived and he had retired and handed over to a chosen successor.

“What now happens is that the Constitutional transition to a new President starts. The Acting President is Emmerson Mnangagwa who will now assume control of all the levers of the State. This phase runs for 90 days and then Zanu-PF must hold an elective conference at which a new leader will be elected who then completes the term of office of Mr Mugabe through to July 2018”.

At the time of going to print last night, it was not clear if Mr Cross had retracted his misleading and grossly inaccurate article since President Mugabe is fit and healthy and showed no signs of having been incapacitated when he touched down at Harare International Airport on Saturday morning. Laughing off speculation on his health and rumours about his death, the President said: “Yes, I was dead. It’s true I was dead. I resurrected like I always do. Once I get back to my country, I am real”.

This is not the first time that rumours about the President’s health have been made. Back in 2010, faced with similar unsubstantiated claims from the private media and opposition parties, Cde Mugabe said: “I don’t know how many times I die but nobody has ever talked about my resurrection.

“I suppose they don’t want to, because it would mean they would mention my resurrection several times and that would be quite divine, an achievement for an individual who is not divine. Jesus died once, and resurrected only once, and poor Mugabe several times.”

We feel it was grossly irresponsible for Mr Cross to spread blatant falsehoods about the Head of State and challenge him to retract his misleading statements and issue an unequivocal apology to President Mugabe.

It is very rude to speculate about the health of other people and downright uncouth to revel in the death of a person and the tone of Mr Cross’ article betrayed his hatred of the President. We also call on Zimbabweans to be wary of unsubstantiated gossip and rumours spread via social media. Most of the information circulating on these platforms is false.