Zimbabwe's Mugabe says he's 'in really good health'By KITSEPILE NYATHI in Harare | Saturday, June 16  2012 at  17:34

Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe has hit back at critics who claim he is now too frail to run for another term in office saying it was his rivals that were instead battling ill health.

The veteran ruler, in power since 1980, was last year nominated by his ZANU- PF party to run in elections he wants held this year.

He told a meeting of the party's women’s league on Friday that his long time foe and current prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai was fond of questioning his health each time he granted journalists interviews.

“Some say I might die in 2013,” President Mugabe, 88, said. “I don’t know why they chose 13 maybe it’s because it is an unlucky number I suppose but I am actually very strong.

“When (Mr) Tsvangirai goes where he goes we hear him on the newspapers and internet saying we are now on good terms but the only problem is that I am very frail.

“I am not frail I am really strong and I am enjoying good health.

“It’s actually some of them that we hear are suffering from these diseases and we know who they are.”

Last week First Lady Grace Mugabe said he husband was still "fit, lucid, energetic and sound” in a rare interview with the state media about the life of the ZANU-PF leader.

For the past two years, rumours have persisted that President Mugabe suffers from advanced prostate cancer.

Last year, he flew to Singapore more than eight times amid reports that he was seeking treatment.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor and ally Dr Gideon Gono was quoted in a leaked 2008 United States diplomatic cable saying doctors had given President Mugabe five years to live

"That’s what they say, they say Mugabe is a very old man and this and that, but he is very sound and lucid,” Mrs Mugabe told the loyalist Sunday Mail newspaper.

"Very, very sound I’m telling you, and very energetic, too. Oh yes, he is a different person.

"He will not miss exercises, seven days a week. At that age, he is very lucky he inherited his mother’s genes.

"We think when she died she was over 100 years old and she was very sound."

Mrs Mugabe, who is 41 years younger than her husband, said the veteran ruler was a fitness fanatic who spent most of his time at the gym.

President Mugabe is likely to face Mr Tsvangirai, who turns 60 this year, in elections.