Reports are President Emmerson Mnangagwa sneaked out of Zimbabwe to South Africa on an unexplained trip. Vice President Constantino Chiwenga was acting president in his absence. Mnangagwa has since returned to Zimbabwe.
According to journalist Mduduzi Mathuthu, Mnangagwa’s administration denied that the President had gone to South Africa for a medical check up. He also said that Mnangagwa’s administration denied reports of a medical emergency. Former President Robert Mugabe was usually criticised for not disclosing the reason(s) behind his trips overseas especially to Singapore.
https://twitter.com/Mathuthu/status/950312715473612800
However, when he was poisoned during a Zanu-PF interface rally in Gwanda in August, Mnangagwa was admitted in a South African hospital after he was airlifted from Zimbabwe. A Mnangagwa sympathiser told NewsDay that when Mnangagwa’s South African doctors met then President Robert Mugabe they told him that Mnangagwa had eaten food laced with thallium even though preliminary indications were that Mnangagwa had been poisoned using palladium.