JOHANNESBURG – Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has prostate cancer that has spread to other organs and was urged by his physician to step down in 2008, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks.

In the cable dated June 2008 and written by James D. McGee, the former U.S. ambassador in Harare, Zimbabwe’s Central Bank governor Gideon Gono was cited as saying the cancer could lead to Mugabe’s death in three to five years.

“Gideon Gono, governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, told the ambassador … that President Robert Mugabe has prostate cancer that has metastasized and, according to doctors, will cause his death in three to five years,” the cable said.

The Zimbabwean government and Mugabe’s office was not immediately available for comment.

Mugabe, 87, has been in power since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980.

Although there have been numerous reports over the past decades on Mugabe’s health, he has no publicly known serious ailment but underwent cataract surgery in Singapore in February.

In an interview with Reuters last September, Mugabe dismissed rumors that he was dying of cancer and had suffered a stroke.

McGee said in the cable as saying that Mugabe’s doctor had recommended that the Zimbabwean leader cut back on his activities and cited Gono as saying that the Zimbabwean leader received medical advice to step down.

In a reference to an earlier meeting with Gono in 2007, the cable says Mugabe had told his doctor that he would step down after the elections in 2008.

Zimbabwean media reported on Saturday that Mugabe had said elections will be held early next year.

Elections are only due in 2013 but Mugabe says the unity government he was forced into two years ago with his rival, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, has run its course.

Analysts say Mugabe’s inner circle wants an early election, fearing the veteran leader may not be able to cope with the demands of campaigning in two years’ time when he will be 89.

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President Robert Mugabe swore in his longtime rival as prime minister Wednesday, cracking his nearly three-decade stranglehold on power and conceding they must work together to rescue Zimbabwe from economic and humanitarian disaster.

The image of Mugabe administering the oath of office to Morgan Tsvangirai was extraordinary given the history of state-sponsored violence against opponents. The opposition leader has been beaten and was once nearly thrown from a 10th floor window by suspected government thugs.

Tsvangirai acknowledged in a speech after the ceremony that many Zimbabweans don’t think the partnership will work, but he said it is the “only viable arrangement.” He promised to begin repairing the economy and healing the country’s other wounds.

Government has been gridlocked since elections last March left the presidency in dispute and broke the long-ruling ZANU-PF party’s control of Parliament. As the political factions squabbled month after month, the once-vibrant farm economy slumped deeper into calamity.

Many people have new hope now that the unity government is taking office, but they also worry about how serious Mugabe will be in sharing control after determinedly holding on to every shred of power since independence from Britain in 1980. He has been under pressure from aides in the military and government who do not want to give up power and prestige to the opposition.

Unusually for a state occasion, no military chiefs were at Wednesday’s ceremony. Generals in the past have said they would not salute Tsvangirai, a former labor leader who did not take part in the independence war that ousted a white-minority regime and swept Mugabe to power.

Elphas Mukonoweshoro, an opposition leader who was to take the oath of minister of public service when the rest of the Cabinet is sworn in Friday, said he wasn’t concerned by the absence of the military chiefs. He said it was not a snub, but an effort “to reflect the new Zimbabwe.”

At a celebration rally attended by some 15,000 supporters later in the day, Tsvangirai pledged to reopen schools that are closed because teachers can’t afford bus fare and to fight a cholera epidemic blamed on the cash-strapped government’s neglect of hospitals and sanitation.

He drew the biggest cheers when he said all government workers — from teachers to soldiers — would be paid in hard currency starting next month to shield them from the world’s highest inflation rate. He did not say how the government would afford that.

People in the crowd threw Zimbabwe dollars like confetti, expressing their contempt for the nearly worthless currency.

The country’s economic collapse — for which Tsvangirai holds Mugabe responsible — has left millions of Zimbabwean dependent on international food aid.

Ian Stephens, a Harare businessman, said it was too early to celebrate the new government.

“It depends on how cooperative Mugabe is and whether he can be trusted,” Stephens said. “Mugabe no longer has absolute power and that could be the turning point.”

Sampson Ibrahim, a street vendor, joined a crowd that watched the ceremony on a TV in the window of an electronics store in downtown Harare.

“I am happy because I expect prices to go down,” Ibrahim said. “They’ve got to get the schools and the hospitals working again.”

Mugabe declared during the ceremony that he is offering “my hand of friendship and solidarity to work with (Tsvangirai’s party) for the service of Zimbabwe.”

“The road to this arrangement has not been easy,” the president said later. “It has been a long and tedious road. But we hope and trust that we have put ourselves to a commitment of making this country work again.”

Leaders of neighboring nations pushed for the governing coalition, saying that once Mugabe and Tsvangirai joined in a unity administration they would overcome mutual mistrust and work together for the good of Zimbabwe.

Mugabe, whose 85th birthday is Feb. 21, has in the recent past treated the 56-year-old Tsvangirai as a junior partner at best.

Tsvangirai won the most votes in the first round of the presidential election last March, but withdrew from a June runoff with Mugabe because of widespread attacks on opposition supporters.

Even though Mugabe clung to the presidency, Tsvangirai’s decade-old Movement for Democratic Change broke ZANU-PF’s lock on parliament in the March election for the first time since independence.

A power-sharing deal was reached in September but it was stalemated for months because the factions couldn’t reach agreement on allotting Cabinet posts. Tsvangirai finally agreed Jan. 30 to join the government and resolve any remaining disputes later.

The coalition agreement calls for the government to make reviving the economy its priority. Even if the factions can put aside their differences, they cannot do much without foreign help. The United States has made clear the money won’t flow if Mugabe tries to sideline Tsvangirai.

Botswana’s government, among the most critical of Mugabe, welcomed Tsvangirai’s swearing-in. It hopes Zimbabwe’s unity administration “will work and help to alleviate suffering of the people of Zimbabwe,” said Clifford Maribe, spokesman for Botswana’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The unity government’s agenda includes preparing for new elections, expected in a year or two. Media restrictions will have to be lifted and other steps taken to ensure voting is free and fair after ballots in recent years were marred by violence, intimidation and manipulation blamed on Mugabe’s party.

Tsvangirai called Wednesday for political detainees to be released. Human rights groups say tortured detainees are on the verge of dying in jail.

From Celia W. Dugger at The New York Times:

After months of resisting intense pressure from leaders across southern Africa, Zimbabwe’s opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, announced Friday that he would do as they have insisted and join a power-sharing government as prime minister with his longtime nemesis, President Robert Mugabe.

The opposition party’s decision to join the government was made unanimously at a meeting of its leadership in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. It will usher in a new phase in the opposition’s decade-long struggle against 84-year-old Mr. Mugabe and his almost 30-year grip on power — a grip he tightened after claiming victory in a bloody, discredited presidential run-off election against Mr. Tsvangirai in June.

“There was jubilation and ululation, singing and dancing,” said party spokeswoman Thabitha Khumalo, describing the reaction of party leaders to the decision to join the government.

Click here for the full post.

Tutu told BBC radio that he hopes African Union members can be persuaded to issue Mugabe an ultimatum, threatening to intervene if he continues clings to power in the ailing nation.

Asked if Mugabe should be removed by force, Tutu said there should “certainly be the threat of it.” He said Mugabe should also be warned that he could face prosecution at the International Criminal Court for his violent suppression of opponents.

He said that he’s ashamed that his native South Africa has so far blocked attempts to oust Mugabe. Former South African president Thabo Mbeki mediated a power-sharing deal between Mugabe and Zimbabwe’s opposition in September, but the agreement has stalled over how to divide Cabinet posts.

A cholera epidemic has killed more than 1,100 people since August and Zimbabwe remains mired in an economic and humanitarian crisis.

“I have to say that I am deeply, deeply distressed that we should be found not on the side of the ones who are suffering,” Tutu told the BBC.

“We have betrayed our legacy, how much more suffering is going to make us say, ‘No, we have given Mr. Mugabe enough time’,” he said.

Tutu said that he is ashamed of South Africa’s handling of the Zimbabwe issue at the U.N. Security Council, where China and Russia in July vetoed a U.S.-sponsored resolution that proposed worldwide sanctions against Mugabe and 13 officials.

The United States and Britain have said they can no longer support a power-sharing arrangement that keeps Mugabe as Zimbabwe’s president. Mugabe has said London and Washington are stupid to think he shouldn’t be part of a unity government.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Wednesday that Mugabe must leave office, and urged South Africa to instigate his removal.

The United States can no longer support a proposed Zimbabwean power-sharing deal that would leave Robert Mugabe, “a man who’s lost it,” as president, the top American envoy for Africa said Sunday.

Jendayi E. Frazer, the assistant secretary of state for African affairs, made the announcement in South Africa after spending the last several days explaining the shift in the American position to regional leaders.

The new stance will put pressure on Zimbabwe’s neighbors, South Africa in particular, to abandon its support for Mr. Mugabe. But South Africa said its position was unchanged.

The United States, Ms. Frazer said, has become convinced that Mr. Mugabe is incapable of sharing power. She cited political moves he has made since September without consulting the opposition, reports that his government has continued to harass and arrest opposition and human rights activists, and the continued deterioration of Zimbabwe’s humanitarian and economic situation.

Particularly worrying, she said, is the rapid spread of cholera, an easily treatable and preventable disease that has killed at least 1,000 Zimbabweans since August.

Accusations by the Mugabe government that the West deliberately started the cholera epidemic are an indication that Mr. Mugabe is “a man who’s lost it, who’s losing his mind, who’s out of touch with reality,” she said.

If Zimbabwe’s neighbors were to unite and “go to Mugabe and tell him to go, I do think he would go,” she said.

But South Africa said Sunday that the only way forward was the agreement under which Mr. Mugabe would remain president and the opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai would take a new prime minister’s post. “Our position has not changed,” said Thabo Masebe, a spokesman for South Africa’s president, Kgalema Motlanthe.

South Africa is the region’s diplomatic leader. Its former president Thabo Mbeki mediated the power-sharing agreement in September and has worked since then to break an impasse over how to divide cabinet posts.

When the power-sharing agreement was announced, the United State gave it crucial support, offering to lift sanctions and help Zimbabwe renegotiate relations with international lenders if the deal was implemented.

“We’re not prepared to do any of that now,” Ms. Frazer said Sunday.

Remember when Robert Mugabe said Zimbabwe’s cholera epidemic had ended, the same day the WHO said another 60,000 people were at risk? Apparently that was a hilarious joke.

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President Robert Mugabe claims the cholera crisis that has killed nearly 800 people in Zimbabwe is contained, and his spokesman said his much-criticized remark that there was no cholera was misunderstood, state media reported Friday.

Mugabe’s comments Thursday drew strong criticism from the United States and Britain; the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe said it showed “how out of touch he is with the reality” in Zimbabwe.

Friday’s Herald newspaper quoted Mugabe’s spokesman George Charamaba as saying Mugabe had been sarcastic and wanted to make the point that the crisis was contained.

The World Health Organization, though, said Friday that the death toll from the waterborne disease had risen to 792 and that the number of cases had increased to 16,700.

“I don’t think that the cholera outbreak is under control,” WHO spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said.

Cholera has spread rapidly in the southern African nation because of its crumbling health care system and lack of clean water. Zimbabwe had among the best health care systems in sub-Saharan Africa before the country’s economic meltdown.

Now most hospitals have been forced to close their doors as they can no longer afford drugs, equipment or wages for their staff, and some of the sick seeking treatment are being transported by wheelbarrow. Officials are also unable to afford spare parts and chemicals for water systems.

Zimbabwe’s decline began in 2000, when Mugabe began an often violent campaign to seize white-owned farms and give them to blacks; most of the land ended up in the hands of his cronies, and production has dropped. Now, hungry Zimbabweans scrounge for corn kernels spilled from trucks carrying the harvest to market in a nation that once exported food.

On Friday, the opposition accused Mugabe of being disingenuous for his “careless and reckless” remarks about the cholera crisis.

“The epidemic is still with us and is spreading fast,” Henry Madzorera, health spokesman for the Movement for Democratic Change, said in a statement.

Aid agencies have warned that the outbreak could worsen with the onset of the rainy season and the disease already has spread to Zimbabwe’s neighbors.

South African authorities have declared the cholera-hit border region with Zimbabwe a disaster area. About 664 people have been treated for the disease and at least eight people have died in South Africa.

Mugabe has ruled his country since its 1980 independence from Britain and has refused to leave office following disputed elections in March. U.S. President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy have called recently for the 84-year-old leader to step down.

On Friday, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband blamed Mugabe for causing “death and destruction on a grand scale” and said that cholera remains a “very significant problem” in the country.

“There is a tragedy in Zimbabwe and it’s a manmade tragedy and the man whose made it is the head of the government, and he’s immiserated his own people, he’s caused death and destruction on a grand scale,” Miliband told Associated Press Television News.

Speaking on the sidelines of a European Union summit in Brussels, Miliband said Mugabe’s “rogue government” was getting in the way of international efforts to provide humanitarian aid for the country to fight the cholera outbreak.

On Thursday, the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe told reporters at the State Department that the cholera problem is getting worse.

“The situation is truly grim,” James McGee said. “One man and his cronies — Robert Mugabe — are holding this country hostage.”

Mugabe’s aides have responded to the calls for his ousting by accusing the West of trying to use the cholera crisis as an excuse to topple the government.

A power-sharing deal worked out in September with the opposition has been deadlocked over how to divide up Cabinet posts. The political impasse has paralyzed public services, including health and education, amid a deepening economic collapse and runaway inflation.

The world consensus suggests that the iron-fisted leader has grown harmful as a political agent, and unrealistic about the solutions for disease, and sovereignty. Mugabe, now 84 years old, has ruled Zimbabwe since its independence from British Rule in 1980. The opposition leaders who oppose him are typically exiled, or threatened with police action in their homes, and at civil gatherings. 

He has repeated the declaration that he has no plans to step down, going as far as saying that “only God who appointed me will remove me.” Both Condoleezza Rice and President Bush joined the chorus of leaders who have denounced Mugabe’s scare tactics and irresponsible rule. Gordon Brown, prime minister of Britain, and French president Nicolas Sarkozy have also spoken disparaging words about the Zimbabwean leader. 

Mugabe forestalled several negotiations with the Movement for Democratic Change after a hotly contested election, in which their leader secured enough votes to sink Mugabe’s Parliament. A presidential runoff ensued, and Morgan Tsvangirai (of MDC) withdrew pending threats to his followers before the race. Jestina Mukoko, of the Zimbabwe Peace Project, has also been detained against her will by Zimbabwe police. Amnesty International has issued a call for her release.

Throughout the struggle, Mugabe has been famously obstinate about relinquishing what has been his quarter century throne. He agreed to a power-sharing deal with the MDC, but has been purposely sluggish in its execution. However, the U.N., along with more powerful Western nations who could provide medical relief for the spiking cholera epidemic, hold the key to the ouster of the dictator.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday that it is “well past time” for Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe to leave office as evidenced by the nation’s calamitous cholera epidemic and health care crisis.

Rice said the country experienced “a sham election,” followed by a sham sharing of power. Speaking in the Danish capital Friday, she said the current outbreak of cholera in the country should be a sign to the international community that it is time to stand up to Mugabe.

“If this is not evidence to the international community to stand up for what is right, I don’t know what would be. And frankly the nations of the region have to do it,” she said. The nations in southern Africa have the most to lose and need to take the lead, she said.

Zimbabwe declared a national emergency over a cholera epidemic and the collapse of its health care system, and state media reported Thursday the government is seeking more international help to pay for food and drugs to combat the crisis.

“It’s well past time for Robert Mugabe to leave, that’s now obvious,” she said. “There has been a sham election, there was a sham power-sharing. We are now seeing the humanitarian toll.”

Rice said “we are seeing not only the political and economic toll that is being taken on the people of Zimbabwe but the toll in the humanitarian dimension as the cholera epidemic has broken out. It is time for the international nations to push Mr. Mugabe out.”

She said the United States “will always do anything and everything it can to help innocent people who are suffering. We are not going to deny assistance to people who are in need because of Mugabe.”

The U.S. Agency for International Development has said it would provide an additional $600,000 to help combat the cholera outbreak. This assistance is in addition to the $4 million water, sanitation, and hygiene emergency program USAID is already implementing in Zimbabwe.

The failure of the southern African nation’s health care system is one of the most devastating effects of the country’s overall economic collapse.

Facing the highest inflation in the world, Zimbabweans are struggling just to eat and find clean drinking water. The United Nations says the number of suspected cholera cases in Zimbabwe since August has climbed above 12,600, with 570 deaths, because of a lack of water treatment and broken sewage pipes. Besides shortages of food and other basics, even cash is scarce.

Cholera is an infectious intestinal disease that is contracted by consuming contaminated food or water. Its symptoms include severe diarrhea.

Rice’s comments on Zimbabwe came during an appearance with Denmark’s Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Rice is making a tour of various cities overseas as her tour in the job of secretary of state comes to a close.

Rice expressed “deep regret” for the deaths of two Danish soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan on Thursday, adding that nothing of value is won without sacrifice. “Afghanistan must never be allowed again to be a safe haven for terrorists,” Rice said. She said a review being done by the Bush administration and its NATO allies of the mission in Afghanistan is nearly complete.

“It is under way. It is, very frankly, almost completed,” she said. “It is being reviewed by the principals of the National Security Council and it is going to be discussed with our friends. And at that point I expect that some elements of it will be made public in some way.”

Some have called for more troops in Afghanistan, a sentiment backed Friday by Danish leader Fogh Rasmussen.

“We have to make sure that the mission will be a success,” he said. We must prevail and we need more troops.”

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said Monday the crisis in Zimbabwe appears “much worse than anything we ever imagined” after the government there blocked his weekend humanitarian visit.

Carter, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and child advocate Graca Machel called for southern African leaders to halt the “deep suffering” in Zimbabwe, where the U.N. says more than 5 million people face imminent starvation.

The president of neighboring South Africa, meanwhile, warned Zimbabwe “may implode and collapse,” as he announced a new round of talks to try to resolve the political impasse.

His comments, some of the strongest yet by South Africa, come as a cholera epidemic has killed hundreds of Zimbabweans and spilled across the border into South Africa. Officials say Zimbabwe’s political and economic collapse caused the outbreak.

South African President Kgalema Motlanthe and the leader of the country’s ruling party, Jacob Zuma, expressed grave concern at Zimbabwe’s deepening humanitarian crisis after meeting with Carter, Annan and Machel.